---
title: ‘A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,’ said the Woman, s… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,’ said the Woman, straightening her back, ‘for I was a busy woman this morning and he has done me a service.’ Who acts: blessing, I. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Cat That Walked By Himself, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# Just so stories, The Cat That Walked By Himself, sentence 109

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‘A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,’ said the Woman, straightening her back, ‘for I was a busy woman this morning and he has done me a service.’

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**Who acts:** blessing, I · **What happens:** say, straighten, be, do · **To what, where:** back, busy woman, service, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Cat That Walked By Himself. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (blessing, I), 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:pg2781:12:109
# text = ‘A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,’ said the Woman, straightening her back, ‘for I was a busy woman this morning and he has done me a service.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	blessing	blessing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
6	Wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
8	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	straightening	straighten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
22	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	_
29	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	det	_	_
30	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	conj	_	_
35	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a blessing on that Wild Thing |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **straighten** | gerund | a blessing on that Wild Thing *not said here* | Woman's back |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent back=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | past | I | a busy woman |  |  | morning |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | present · perfect | blessing | a service | me |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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