--- title: He asked his tall aunt the Ostrich about her tail-feathers, his tall… — Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5: The Elepha… · tree and pragmatics description: He asked his tall aunt the Ostrich about her tail-feathers, his tall uncle the Giraffe why his skin was spotty, his broad aunt the Hippopotamus why her eyes were red, and his hairy uncle the Baboon why melons tasted just so; each one spanked him. Who acts: Child, tall uncle, skin, broad aunt. A sent --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/79-justso-elephants-child-1/7/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / [Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5:…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/79-justso-elephants-child-1/) / 7 # Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5: The Elephant's Child, part 1 (What does the Crocodile have for dinner?), sentence 7 He asked his tall aunt the Ostrich about her tail-feathers, his tall uncle the Giraffe why his skin was spotty, his broad aunt the Hippopotamus why her eyes were red, and his hairy uncle the Baboon why melons tasted just so; each one spanked him. **Who acts:** Child, tall uncle, skin, broad aunt, eyes, hairy uncle · **What happens:** ask, giraffe, be, hippopotamus, baboon, taste · **To what, where:** tall aunt, Child This is a sentence of the lesson «Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5: The Elephant's Child, part 1 (What does the Crocodile have for dinner?)» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Child, tall uncle, skin, broad aunt), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:books:079-justso-elephants-child-1.lesson:7 # text = He asked his tall aunt the Ostrich about her tail-feathers, his tall uncle the Giraffe why his skin was spotty, his broad aunt the Hippopotamus why her eyes were red, and his hairy uncle the Baboon why melons tasted just so; each one spanked him. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = books # lesson = 079-justso-elephants-child-1.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×2 1 He he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 2 nsubj _ _ 2 asked ask VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 5 nmod:poss _ _ 4 tall tall ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 amod _ _ 5 aunt aunt NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 iobj _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 Ostrich ostrich NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 appos _ _ 8 about about ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 9 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 12 nmod:poss _ _ 10 tail tail NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 compound _ _ 11 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 10 punct _ _ 12 feathers feather NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 obl _ _ 13 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=18:punct 14 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 15 tall tall ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 16 amod _ _ 16 uncle uncle NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 nsubj _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 18 Giraffe giraffe NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obl _ _ 19 why why ADV WRB PronType=Int 23 advmod _ _ 20 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 21 nmod:poss _ _ 21 skin skin NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 nsubj _ _ 22 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 23 cop _ _ 23 spotty spotty ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 parataxis _ _ 24 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=29:punct 25 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 27 nmod:poss _ _ 26 broad broad ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 27 amod _ _ 27 aunt aunt NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 Hippopotamus hippopotamus NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 conj _ _ 30 why why ADV WRB PronType=Int 34 advmod _ _ 31 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 32 nmod:poss _ _ 32 eyes eye NOUN NNS Number=Plur 34 nsubj _ _ 33 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 34 cop _ _ 34 red red ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 acl:relcl _ _ 35 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 36 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 37 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 39 nmod:poss _ _ 38 hairy hairy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 amod _ _ 39 uncle uncle NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 nsubj _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 Baboon baboon NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 conj _ _ 42 why why ADV WRB PronType=Int 44 advmod _ _ 43 melons melon NOUN NNS Number=Plur 44 nsubj _ _ 44 tasted taste VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 41 acl:relcl _ _ 45 just just ADV RB _ 46 advmod _ _ 46 so so ADV RB _ 44 advmod _ _ 47 ; ; PUNCT , _ 50 punct _ _ 48 each each DET DT PronType=Tot 49 det _ _ 49 one one NOUN NN Number=Sing 50 nsubj _ _ 50 spanked spank VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ _ 51 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 50 obj _ _ 52 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Child | | Child's tall aunt | | | about Kipling's tail feathers | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent aunt=Recipient about feather=Topic | | 2 | **giraffe** | | Child's tall uncle | | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **is** | past | Child's skin | | | | | spotty *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **hippopotamus** | | Child's broad aunt | | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **is** | past | Kipling's eyes | | | | | red *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **baboon** | | Child's hairy uncle | | | | | | tree rules | | 7 | **taste** | past | melons | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 8 | **spank** | past | each one | Child | | | | | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient | 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. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:books:079-justso-elephants-child-1.lesson:7`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×2. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5:…, 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/79-justso-elephants-child-1/6/) - next →: [Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 5:…, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/79-justso-elephants-child-1/8/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/79-justso-elephants-child-1/)