---
title: ‘I had to pay two deerskins--soft ones with fringes--to the Stranger… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I had to pay two deerskins--soft ones with fringes--to the Stranger-man for the things we did to him.’ Who acts: I, we. 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 7

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‘I had to pay two deerskins--soft ones with fringes--to the Stranger-man for the things we did to him.’

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**Who acts:** I, we · **What happens:** have, pay, do · **To what, where:** two deerskins, things, man

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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 (I, we), 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:pg2781:10:7
# text = ‘I had to pay two deerskins--soft ones with fringes--to the Stranger-man for the things we did to him.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	deerskins	deerskin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	fringes	fringe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	Stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pay** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | two deerskins and soft ones with fringes |  |  |  | to the Stranger man for the things | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deerskin=Asset |
| 3 | **do** | past | we | the things *not said here* | man |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |

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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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