---
title: BEFORE the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came the Time… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: BEFORE the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came the Time of the Very Beginnings; and that was in the days when the Eldest Magician was getting Things ready. Who acts: that, Eldest Magician. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Crab That Played With the Sea, with its dep
---

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# Just so stories, The Crab That Played With the Sea, sentence 1

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BEFORE the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came the Time of the Very Beginnings; and that was in the days when the Eldest Magician was getting Things ready.

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**Who acts:** that, Eldest Magician · **What happens:** come, be, get · **To what, where:** Things

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Crab That Played With the Sea. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (that, Eldest Magician), 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:pg2781:11:1
# text = BEFORE the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came the Time of the Very Beginnings; and that was in the days when the Eldest Magician was getting Things ready.
1	BEFORE	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	High	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	Far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Off	off	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	O	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	13	case	_	_
11	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	Best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	amod	_	_
13	Beloved	Beloved	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	Beginnings	Beginning	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	Eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	32	amod	_	_
32	Magician	Magician	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	parataxis	_	_
35	Things	Thing	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	_
36	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | that |  |  |  | in the days |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** | past · progressive | the Eldest Magician | Things |  |  |  | ready *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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