---
title: She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, ‘Wipe you feet, dear, when
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/12/8/)

<!-- 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 Cat That Walked By Himself](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/12/) / 8

# Just so stories, The Cat That Walked By Himself, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, ‘Wipe you feet, dear, when you come in, and now we’ll keep house.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Woman, you, we · **What happens:** pick out, lie down, strew, light, hang, dry · **To what, where:** nice dry Cave, clean sand, floor, nice fire, back, dried horse skin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, you, we), 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:pg2781:12:8
# text = She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, ‘Wipe you feet, dear, when you come in, and now we’ll keep house.’
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	12	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
19	down	down	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	in	in	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	strewed	strew	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
25	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	lit	light	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	at	at	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	Cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	48	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
47	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
48	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
50	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	54	amod	_	_
51	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	51	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	compound	_	_
54	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
56	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	58	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	down	down	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
60	across	across	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
61	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
62	opening	opening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
63	of	of	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
65	Cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	69	punct	_	_
67	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	69	cc	_	_
68	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	69	nsubj	_	_
69	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	72	punct	_	_
71	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	72	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	Wipe	wipe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	69	ccomp	_	_
73	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	72	obj	_	_
74	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	72	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
75	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	76	punct	_	_
76	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	72	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
77	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	80	punct	_	_
78	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	80	advmod	_	_
79	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	80	nsubj	_	_
80	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	72	conj	_	_
81	in	in	ADV	RB	_	80	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
82	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	87	punct	_	_
83	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	87	cc	_	_
84	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	87	advmod	_	_
85	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	87	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
86	’ll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	87	aux	_	_
87	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
88	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	87	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
89	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
90	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pick out** | past | Woman | a nice dry Cave |  |  |  | instead a heap of wet leaves | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cave=Patient |
| 2 | **lie down** | to-infinitive | Woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **strew** | past | Woman | clean sand |  | the floor |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sand=Theme on floor=Destination |
| 4 | **light** | past | Woman | a nice fire of wood |  | the back of the Cave |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Product |
| 5 | **hang** | past | Woman | a dried horse skin |  | the opening of the Cave |  | down *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Patient |
| 6 | **dry** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 8 | **wipe** | infinitive |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent you=Theme foot=Destination |
| 9 | **come in** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **keep** | future | we | house |  |  | now |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 11 | **fire** |  |  | wood |  |  |  |  | nom fire «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/12/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/12/9/)
- ↑ back to [The Cat That Walked By Himself](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/12/)