---
title: But as time passed on she found that she was growing old and infirm,… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: But as time passed on she found that she was growing old and infirm, and that it was becoming more and more difficult for her to catch the same number of Mice as before; so after thinking very carefully what was the best thing to do, she one day called all the Mice together, and after promising not 
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Cat and the Mice., sentence 3

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But as time passed on she found that she was growing old and infirm, and that it was becoming more and more difficult for her to catch the same number of Mice as before; so after thinking very carefully what was the best thing to do, she one day called all the Mice together, and after promising not to touch them, she addressed them as follows:

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**Who acts:** Cat, difficulty · **What happens:** pass, find, grow, become, catch, think · **To what, where:** time, same number, best thing, Cat, Mice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Cat and the Mice.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cat, difficulty), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:6:3
# text = But as time passed on she found that she was growing old and infirm, and that it was becoming more and more difficult for her to catch the same number of Mice as before; so after thinking very carefully what was the best thing to do, she one day called all the Mice together, and after promising not to touch them, she addressed them as follows:
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	infirm	infirm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
21	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	24	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	24	advmod	_	_
24	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	_
25	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	csubj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	Mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	before	before	ADV	RB	_	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
37	so	so	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
38	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
39	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	53	advcl	_	_
40	very	very	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
42	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	46	nsubj	_	_
43	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
45	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	46	amod	_	_
46	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	ccomp	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
50	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj:pass	_	_
51	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	52	nummod	_	_
52	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obl:unmarked	_	_
53	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
54	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	56	det:predet	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	Mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	xcomp	_	_
57	together	together	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	68	punct	_	_
59	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	68	cc	_	_
60	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	61	mark	_	_
61	promising	promise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	68	advcl	_	_
62	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	64	advmod	_	_
63	to	to	PART	TO	_	64	mark	_	_
64	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	61	xcomp	_	_
65	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	64	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
67	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	68	nsubj	_	_
68	addressed	address	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
69	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	68	obj	_	_
70	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	71	mark	_	_
71	follows	follow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	68	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | participle |  | time *not said here* |  |  |  | on Cat | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on she=Location |
| 2 | **find** | past |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **grow** | past · progressive | Cat |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **become** | past · progressive | difficulty |  |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **catch** | to-infinitive | Cat | the same number of Mice |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Theme |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | past |  | the best thing |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; carefully *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **call** | participle · passive |  | Cat |  |  | day | all Mice *xcomp*; together *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 10 | **promise** *speech: promise* | gerund | Cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 11 | **not** **touch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Cat *not said here* | Mice *= mouse* |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Co-Theme |
| 12 | **address** | past | Cat | Mice *= mouse* |  |  |  |  | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Destination |
| 13 | **follow** | present | Cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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