---
title: Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with, es… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with, especially before lunch, but as they were drawn over and over again on birch-bark, they became plainer and easier, till at last even Tegumai said he could find no fault with them. Who acts: Many, pictures, Tegumai, T. A sentence of «J
---

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# Just so stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, sentence 294

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Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with, especially before lunch, but as they were drawn over and over again on birch-bark, they became plainer and easier, till at last even Tegumai said he could find no fault with them.

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**Who acts:** Many, pictures, Tegumai, T · **What happens:** be, begin, draw, become, say, find · **To what, where:** pictures, birch bark, fault · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Many, pictures, Tegumai, T), 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:pg2781:10:294
# text = Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with, especially before lunch, but as they were drawn over and over again on birch-bark, they became plainer and easier, till at last even Tegumai said he could find no fault with them.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	pictures	picture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	much	much	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	lunch	lunch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	drawn	draw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
23	over	over	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	over	over	ADV	RB	_	23	conj	_	_
26	again	again	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
34	plainer	plain	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	xcomp	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	easier	easy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	till	till	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	at	at	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	xcomp	_	_
41	even	even	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	Tegumai	Tegumai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
43	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	acl:relcl	_	_
44	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	ccomp	_	_
47	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	48	det	_	_
48	fault	fault	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
49	with	with	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Many of the other pictures |  |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | to-infinitive | Many of the other pictures *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with lunch | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with lunch=Subeventuality |
| 3 | **draw** | past · passive |  | pictures *= picture* |  | birch bark | again | over *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on bark=Destination |
| 4 | **become** | past | pictures *= picture* |  |  |  |  | last, plain *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Tegumai |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **find** | could | T | no fault |  |  |  | with pictures *= picture* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fault=Topic |

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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:** «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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