---
title: That was all very well to draw once or twice; but when it came to dr… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: That was all very well to draw once or twice; but when it came to drawing it six or seven times, Taffy and Tegumai drew it scratchier and scratchier, till at last the T-sound was only a thin long Tegumai with his arms out to hold Taffy and Teshumai. Who acts: sort, Taffy, T sound. A sentence of «Jus
---

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# Just so stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, sentence 291

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That was all very well to draw once or twice; but when it came to drawing it six or seven times, Taffy and Tegumai drew it scratchier and scratchier, till at last the T-sound was only a thin long Tegumai with his arms out to hold Taffy and Teshumai.

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**Who acts:** sort, Taffy, T sound · **What happens:** be, come, draw, hold · **To what, where:** sort, thin long Tegumai, Taffy

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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 (sort, Taffy, T sound), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg2781:10:291
# text = That was all very well to draw once or twice; but when it came to drawing it six or seven times, Taffy and Tegumai drew it scratchier and scratchier, till at last the T-sound was only a thin long Tegumai with his arms out to hold Taffy and Teshumai.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	draw	draw	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	advmod	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	drawing	draw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	conj	_	_
22	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
24	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	Tegumai	Tegumai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
27	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	scratchier	scratchy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	xcomp	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	scratchier	scratchy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	till	till	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
37	T	t	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	cop	_	_
41	only	only	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
43	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
44	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	Tegumai	Tegumai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	parataxis	_	_
46	with	with	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
49	out	out	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	51	mark	_	_
51	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	advcl	_	_
52	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	51	obj	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	Teshumai	Teshumai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	52	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | That *obl*; draw, once, well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | sort |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **draw** | gerund | sort *not said here* | sort |  |  | time |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **draw** | past | Taffy and Tegumai | sort |  |  |  | scratchy *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past | the T sound | a thin long Tegumai |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hold** | to-infinitive | Taffy and Tegumai *not said here* | Taffy and Teshumai |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent taffy=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:** «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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