---
title: Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were st… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe. Who acts: Leopard, Ethiopian, breakfasts. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Leopard Got His Spots, with its dependency
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/5/69/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Just so stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/) / [How the Leopard Got His Spots](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/5/) / 69

# Just so stories, How the Leopard Got His Spots, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Leopard, Ethiopian, breakfasts · **What happens:** stare, see, be, blotch, sign · **To what, where:** stripy shadows, Zebra

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Leopard, Ethiopian, breakfasts), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2781:5:69
# text = Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe.
1	Leopard	Leopard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	Ethiopian	Ethiopian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	stripy	stripy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	blotched	blotch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Zebra	Zebra	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	Giraffe	Giraffe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stare** | past | Leopard |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **stare** | past | Ethiopian |  |  |  |  | in the forest | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in forest=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | could | breakfasts *= breakfast* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | all stripy shadows and blotched shadows |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **blotch** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **sign** |  |  | Zebra and Giraffe |  |  |  |  | nom sign «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/5/68/)
- next →: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/5/70/)
- ↑ back to [How the Leopard Got His Spots](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/5/)