---
title: Now, if I showed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Aby… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Now, if I showed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and China, merely because they worry me, I might be made even more ashamed than I have been.’ Who acts: I, Egypt. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Butterfly That Stamped, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Just so stories, The Butterfly That Stamped, sentence 42

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Now, if I showed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and China, merely because they worry me, I might be made even more ashamed than I have been.’

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**Who acts:** I, Egypt · **What happens:** show off, worry, make, be · **To what, where:** me, I

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Butterfly That Stamped. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Egypt), 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:pg2781:13:42
# text = Now, if I showed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and China, merely because they worry me, I might be made even more ashamed than I have been.’
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	Queens	queen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Persia	Persia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	Abyssinia	Abyssinia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	China	China	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	worry	worry	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
29	even	even	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	31	advmod	_	_
31	ashamed	ashamed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
32	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show off** | past | I |  |  |  | before this Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and China; now |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **worry** | present | Egypt | me |  |  |  | merely *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer |
| 3 | **make** | might · passive |  | I |  |  |  | ashamed *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 4 | **be** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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