---
title: When the cat saw them, she did not wait for bidding, but jumped out… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When the cat saw them, she did not wait for bidding, but jumped out of the captain's arms, and in a few minutes laid almost all the rats and mice dead at her feet. Who acts: cat, puss. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the cat saw them, she did not wait for bidding, but jumped out of the captain's arms, and in a few minutes laid almost all the rats and mice dead at her feet.

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**Who acts:** cat, puss · **What happens:** see, not wait, jump out, lay · **To what, where:** rats, arms

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, puss), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg7439:37:70
# text = When the cat saw them, she did not wait for bidding, but jumped out of the captain's arms, and in a few minutes laid almost all the rats and mice dead at her feet.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	bidding	bidding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
28	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
29	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	32	det:predet	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	_
35	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
36	at	at	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the cat | rats *= rat* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **wait** | past · do-support | puss |  |  |  |  | for bidding | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **jump out** | past |  | the captain's arms |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme arm=Trajectory |
| 4 | **lay** | participle |  | all rats and mice |  |  | minute |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rat=Result |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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