---
title: This time it was all the cat could do to refrain from following so t… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: This time it was all the cat could do to refrain from following so tempting an opportunity. Who acts: courtyard, time. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman., sentence 123

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This time it was all the cat could do to refrain from following so tempting an opportunity.

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**Who acts:** courtyard, time · **What happens:** be, do, refrain, follow, tempt · **To what, where:** cat, opportunity

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (courtyard, time), 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:pg75000:7:123
# text = This time it was all the cat could do to refrain from following so tempting an opportunity.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	7	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	acl:relcl	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	refrain	refrain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	following	follow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	tempting	tempt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | courtyard | all cat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | could | this time |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **refrain** | to-infinitive | this time *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn refrain-69 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **follow** | gerund | this time *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **tempt** | gerund | this time *not said here* | a opportunity |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opportunity=Recipient |

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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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