---
title: Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very softly, ‘Little… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very softly, ‘Little man, you know that all your stamping wouldn’t bend one blade of grass. Who acts: Suleiman, you, stamping. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Butterfly That Stamped, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Just so stories, The Butterfly That Stamped, sentence 53

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Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very softly, ‘Little man, you know that all your stamping wouldn’t bend one blade of grass.

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**Who acts:** Suleiman, you, stamping · **What happens:** bend, whisper, know, not bend · **To what, where:** head, Little man, one blade · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Suleiman, you, stamping), 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:pg2781:13:53
# text = Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very softly, ‘Little man, you know that all your stamping wouldn’t bend one blade of grass.
1	Suleiman	Suleiman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	bin	bin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Daoud	Daoud	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
6	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	23	det:predet	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	stamping	stamping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	bend	bend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend** | past | Suleiman | Suleiman's head |  |  |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent head=Material |
| 2 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | Suleiman *not said here* | Little man |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **know** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **not** **bend** | would | your stamping | one blade of grass |  |  |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent blade=Material |

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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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