---
title: ‘Ah,’ said the Woman, listening, ‘this is a very clever Cat, but he… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Ah,’ said the Woman, listening, ‘this is a very clever Cat, but he is not so clever as my Man.’ Who acts: Woman, this, Man. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Cat That Walked By Himself, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, The Cat That Walked By Himself, sentence 146

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‘Ah,’ said the Woman, listening, ‘this is a very clever Cat, but he is not so clever as my Man.’

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**Who acts:** Woman, this, Man · **What happens:** say, listen, be, not be · **To what, where:** clever Cat · **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 (Woman, this, Man), 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:pg2781:12:146
# text = ‘Ah,’ said the Woman, listening, ‘this is a very clever Cat, but he is not so clever as my Man.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	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	Woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **listen** | gerund | the Woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present | this | a clever Cat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present | Man |  |  |  |  | as my Man; clever *property* | 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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