---
title: The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusive… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. Who acts: Ethiopian. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Leopard Got His Spots,
---

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# Just so stories, How the Leopard Got His Spots, sentence 52

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The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches.

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**Who acts:** Ethiopian · **What happens:** scratch, say, be, heel, cover · **To what, where:** head, rich fulvous orange tawny, Giraffe · **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 (Ethiopian), 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:pg2781:5:52
# text = The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, ‘It ought to be ‘sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Ethiopian	Ethiopian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	scratched	scratch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	sclusively	sclusively	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
17	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
18	fulvous	fulvous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
19	orange	orange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	tawny	tawny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	xcomp	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	heel	heel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
32	Giraffe	Giraffe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
37	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
38	all	all	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	over	over	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	chestnut	chestnut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	_
42	blotches	blotch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scratch** | past | the Ethiopian | Ethiopian's head |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Ethiopian *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a rich fulvous orange tawny |  | head |  | sclusively *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **heel** | ought |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | Giraffe |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **cover** | present · passive |  | head |  |  |  | with chestnut blotches; over *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with blotch=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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