---
title: The cat was so sorry, and promised she would think of a way to get i… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The cat was so sorry, and promised she would think of a way to get it if only he would not bark so loudly. Who acts: cat, son. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/73/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Gleanings from Chinese folklore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/) / [How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/) / 73

# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cat was so sorry, and promised she would think of a way to get it if only he would not bark so loudly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cat, son · **What happens:** be, promise, think, get, not bark · **To what, where:** way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, son), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:14:73
# text = The cat was so sorry, and promised she would think of a way to get it if only he would not bark so loudly.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	bark	bark	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	loudly	loudly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the cat |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | the cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | would | cat |  |  |  |  | of a way | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive |  | way |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 5 | **not** **bark** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | son |  |  |  |  | loudly *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Project Gutenberg book 75089 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/72/)
- next →: [sentence 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/74/)
- ↑ back to [How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75089/14/)