--- title: He took the Elephant--All-the-Elephant-there-was--and said, ‘Play at… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics description: He took the Elephant--All-the-Elephant-there-was--and said, ‘Play at being an Elephant,’ and All-the-Elephant-there-was played. Who acts: Magician. 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. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/4/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Just so stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/) / [The Crab That Played With the Sea](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/) / 4 # Just so stories, The Crab That Played With the Sea, sentence 4 He took the Elephant--All-the-Elephant-there-was--and said, ‘Play at being an Elephant,’ and All-the-Elephant-there-was played. **Who acts:** Magician · **What happens:** take, be, say, play · **To what, where:** Elephant, All · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Magician), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg2781:11:4 # text = He took the Elephant--All-the-Elephant-there-was--and said, ‘Play at being an Elephant,’ and All-the-Elephant-there-was played. 1 He he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 2 nsubj _ _ 2 took take VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 Elephant Elephant PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 5 -- -- PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 6 All all DET DT PronType=Tot 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 7 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 10 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 8 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 10 det _ SpaceAfter=No 9 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 8 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 10 Elephant elephant NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 appos _ SpaceAfter=No 11 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 10 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 12 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 14 expl _ SpaceAfter=No 13 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 12 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 14 was be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 -- -- PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 17 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 19 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 20 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 20 Play play VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 17 ccomp _ _ 21 at at ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 22 being be AUX VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 24 cop _ _ 23 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 Elephant Elephant PROPN NNP Number=Sing 20 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 26 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 20 punct _ _ 27 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 28 All all DET DT PronType=Tot 37 nsubj:pass _ SpaceAfter=No 29 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 32 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 32 det _ SpaceAfter=No 31 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 30 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 32 Elephant elephant NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 appos _ SpaceAfter=No 33 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 32 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 34 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 37 expl _ SpaceAfter=No 35 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 37 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 36 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 37 aux:pass _ _ 37 played play VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 2 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 38 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **take** | past | Magician | | the Elephant | | | | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument elephant=Destination | | 2 | **be** | past | Magician *not said here* | All | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Magician *not said here* | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **play** | infinitive | | | | | | | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **is** | gerund | | | | | | at a Elephant | tree rules | | 6 | **play** | past · passive | | All | | there | | | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/3/) - next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/5/) - ↑ back to [The Crab That Played With the Sea](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/)