---
title: And it was so--just so--a little time ago--on the banks of the big W… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: And it was so--just so--a little time ago--on the banks of the big Wagai! Who acts: Many. 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 298

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And it was so--just so--a little time ago--on the banks of the big Wagai!

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**Who acts:** Many · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** banks

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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), 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:pg2781:10:298
# text = And it was so--just so--a little time ago--on the banks of the big Wagai!
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	just	just	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	Wagai	Wagai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Many |  |  | the banks of the big Wagai | time | ago *property* | tree rules |

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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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