---
title: PUSSY can sit by the fire and sing, Pussy can climb a tree, Or play… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: PUSSY can sit by the fire and sing, Pussy can climb a tree, Or play with a silly old cork and string To’muse herself, not me. Who acts: PUSSY. 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 166

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PUSSY can sit by the fire and sing, Pussy can climb a tree, Or play with a silly old cork and string To’muse herself, not me.

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**Who acts:** PUSSY · **What happens:** sit, climb, play · **To what, where:** tree

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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 (PUSSY), 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:pg2781:12:166
# text = PUSSY can sit by the fire and sing, Pussy can climb a tree, Or play with a silly old cork and string To’muse herself, not me.
1	PUSSY	pussy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	sing	sing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	Pussy	Pussy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	climb	climb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	cork	cork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	To’muse	to'muse	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | can | PUSSY |  |  |  |  | by the fire and sing | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by fire=Location |
| 2 | **climb** | can | Pussy | a tree |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location tree=Theme |
| 3 | **play** | infinitive | PUSSY *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a silly old cork and string; to'muse PUSSY | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with cork=Theme |

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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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