---
title: ‘Look!’ said the Man, and as he spoke the great Sea came up the mout… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Look!’ said the Man, and as he spoke the great Sea came up the mouth of the Perak river, driving the river backwards till it overflowed all the dark forests for miles and miles, and flooded the Man’s house. Who acts: Man, Sea. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Crab That Played
---

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# Just so stories, The Crab That Played With the Sea, sentence 38

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‘Look!’ said the Man, and as he spoke the great Sea came up the mouth of the Perak river, driving the river backwards till it overflowed all the dark forests for miles and miles, and flooded the Man’s house.

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**Who acts:** Man, Sea · **What happens:** look, say, speak, come up, drive, overflow · **To what, where:** great Sea, mouth, river, dark forests, house · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Man, Sea), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2781:11:38
# text = ‘Look!’ said the Man, and as he spoke the great Sea came up the mouth of the Perak river, driving the river backwards till it overflowed all the dark forests for miles and miles, and flooded the Man’s house.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Sea	Sea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	Perak	Perak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	driving	drive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
29	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	overflowed	overflow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
32	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	35	det:predet	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	flooded	flood	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	’s	's	PART	POS	_	44	case	_	_
46	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Man | the great Sea |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **come up** | past | the Man *not said here* | the mouth of the Perak river |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 5 | **drive** | gerund | the Man *not said here* | the river |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme river=Trajectory |
| 6 | **overflow** | past | Sea | all dark forests |  |  |  | for miles and miles | tree rules |
| 7 | **flood** | past | the Man *not said here* | the Man's house |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent house=Patient |

<!-- .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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