---
title: ‘No,’ said the Fisherman, ‘I am spinning a line with which I shall s… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘No,’ said the Fisherman, ‘I am spinning a line with which I shall some day catch the world; but I do not play with the Sea.’ Who acts: Fisherman, I. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/48/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / 48

# Just so stories, The Crab That Played With the Sea, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘No,’ said the Fisherman, ‘I am spinning a line with which I shall some day catch the world; but I do not play with the Sea.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Fisherman, I · **What happens:** say, spin, catch, not play · **To what, where:** line, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Fisherman, I), 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:pg2781:11:48
# text = ‘No,’ said the Fisherman, ‘I am spinning a line with which I shall some day catch the world; but I do not play with the Sea.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	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	Fisherman	Fisherman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
20	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	catch	catch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	Sea	Sea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Fisherman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **spin** | present · progressive | I | a line |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent line=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | shall | I | the world |  |  | day | with a line | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent world=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **play** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  | with the Sea | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with sea=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/47/)
- next →: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/49/)
- ↑ back to [The Crab That Played With the Sea](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/11/)