---
title: ‘Gracious!’ said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Dao… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Gracious!’ said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed till the tears ran down his face at the impudence of the bad little Butterfly. Who acts: Suleiman, tears. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Butterfly That Stamped, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Just so stories, The Butterfly That Stamped, sentence 70

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‘Gracious!’ said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed till the tears ran down his face at the impudence of the bad little Butterfly.

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**Who acts:** Suleiman, tears · **What happens:** say, sit, laugh, run down · **To what, where:** wife, face, impudence · **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, tears), 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:pg2781:13:70
# text = ‘Gracious!’ said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed till the tears ran down his face at the impudence of the bad little Butterfly.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Gracious	gracious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	Suleiman	Suleiman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	bin	bin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Daoud	Daoud	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	flat	_	_
20	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
21	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
24	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
25	down	down	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	impudence	impudence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	Butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | Butterfly's wife |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent wife=Topic |
| 2 | **sit** | past |  |  |  |  |  | quiet *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | Suleiman |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **run down** | past | the tears | Butterfly's face |  | the impudence of the bad little Butterfly |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location face=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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