---
title: ‘What is this,’ said the Leopard, ‘that is so ‘sclusively dark, and… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What is this,’ said the Leopard, ‘that is so ‘sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?’ Who acts: that. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Leopard Got His Spots, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, How the Leopard Got His Spots, sentence 25

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‘What is this,’ said the Leopard, ‘that is so ‘sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?’

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**Who acts:** that · **What happens:** be, say · **To what, where:** this · **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 (that), 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:pg2781:5:25
# text = ‘What is this,’ said the Leopard, ‘that is so ‘sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	nsubj:outer	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Leopard	Leopard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	‘	‘	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	sclusively	sclusively	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | this |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | dark, sclusively *property* | tree rules |

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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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