---
title: After a long time--things lived for ever so long in those days--they… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: After a long time--things lived for ever so long in those days--they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit--the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest--they went away from the High Veldt. Who acts: things, Giraffe, legs. A sentence of «Just
---

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# Just so stories, How the Leopard Got His Spots, sentence 8

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After a long time--things lived for ever so long in those days--they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit--the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest--they went away from the High Veldt.

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**Who acts:** things, Giraffe, legs · **What happens:** live, learn, avoid, look, begin, be · **To what, where:** anything, bit, High Veldt

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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 (things, Giraffe, legs), 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:pg2781:5:8
# text = After a long time--things lived for ever so long in those days--they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit--the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest--they went away from the High Veldt.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	7	obl	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	learned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	19	obj	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	like	like	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Leopard	Leopard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Ethiopian	Ethiopian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Giraffe	Giraffe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
40	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nsubj	_	_
43	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	cop	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	longest	long	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	37	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
48	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
49	away	away	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
50	from	from	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
52	High	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	Veldt	Veldt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | things |  |  |  | day; time | long *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **learn** | past | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **avoid** | to-infinitive | things *= thing* *not said here* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent anything=Location |
| 4 | **look** | past |  |  |  |  |  | like a Leopard or a Ethiopian | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **begin** | past | the Giraffe | bit by bit |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 6 | **is** | past | Zebra's legs |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **go away** | past | Giraffe |  |  | the High Veldt |  | away *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme from veldt=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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