---
title: ‘I shouldn’t say that again if I were you,’ said the Djinn; you migh… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I shouldn’t say that again if I were you,’ said the Djinn; you might say it once too often. Who acts: I, Djinn, you. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Camel Got His Hump, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, How the Camel Got His Hump, sentence 32

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‘I shouldn’t say that again if I were you,’ said the Djinn; you might say it once too often.

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**Who acts:** I, Djinn, you · **What happens:** not say, be, say · **To what, where:** that, you, work · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Camel Got His Hump. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Djinn, you), 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:pg2781:3:32
# text = ‘I shouldn’t say that again if I were you,’ said the Djinn; you might say it once too often.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	_
7	again	again	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Djinn	Djinn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	20	advmod	_	_
23	too	too	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	often	often	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | should | I | that |  |  | again |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent that=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** | past | I | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the Djinn |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | might | you | work |  |  |  | often, once *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

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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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