---
title: Then we can play that it was me jumped out of the dark and s’prised… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Then we can play that it was me jumped out of the dark and s’prised you with that noise--same as I did in the beaver-swamp last winter.’ Who acts: we, noise, I. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Alphabet Was Made, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then we can play that it was me jumped out of the dark and s’prised you with that noise--same as I did in the beaver-swamp last winter.’

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**Who acts:** we, noise, I · **What happens:** play, be, jump out, s'pris, do · **To what, where:** me, dark, you, beaver swamp

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Alphabet Was Made. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, noise, I), 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:pg2781:10:29
# text = Then we can play that it was me jumped out of the dark and s’prised you with that noise--same as I did in the beaver-swamp last winter.’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	parataxis	_	_
9	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	s’prised	s'pris	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	swamp	swamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
30	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | can | we |  |  |  | then |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **jump out** | past | noise | the dark |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location dark=Theme |
| 4 | **s'pris** | participle | noise *not said here* | you |  |  |  | with that noise | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** | past | I |  |  | the beaver swamp and last winter |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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.

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**Text:** «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, Project Gutenberg book 2781 (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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