---
title: I don’t think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: I don’t think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn’t done it once--do you? Who acts: I, grown ups, Leopard. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Leopard Got His Spots, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Just so stories, How the Leopard Got His Spots, sentence 121

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I don’t think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn’t done it once--do you?

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**Who acts:** I, grown ups, Leopard · **What happens:** not think, grow, keep, say, not do, do · **To what, where:** silly thing, skin, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Leopard Got His Spots. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, grown ups, Leopard), 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:pg2781:5:121
# text = I don’t think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn’t done it once--do you?
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	even	even	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	ups	up	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
11	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
13	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	16	det:predet	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Leopard	Leopard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Ethiopian	Ethiopian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **grow** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **keep** | would | grown ups |  |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | grown ups *not said here* | such silly thing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | the Leopard and the Ethiopian | skin |  |  |  | once *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 6 | **do** | present |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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