---
title: Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that; but if you can’t read… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that; but if you can’t read, ask some one to show it you. Who acts: steamer kiddy, you, one. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Crab That Played With the Sea, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, The Crab That Played With the Sea, sentence 163

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Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that; but if you can’t read, ask some one to show it you.

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**Who acts:** steamer kiddy, you, one · **What happens:** be, do, not read, ask, show · **To what, where:** that, one, kiddy, you

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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 (steamer kiddy, you, one), 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:pg2781:11:163
# text = Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that; but if you can’t read, ask some one to show it you.
1	Any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
2	steamer	steamer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	kiddy	kiddy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
8	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | ought | any steamer kiddy |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | any steamer kiddy *not said here* | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **read** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | any steamer kiddy *not said here* | some one |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent one=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **show** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | some one *not said here* | kiddy | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient it=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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