---
title: So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more exci… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before. Who acts: Ethiopian, Leopard, man. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Leopard Got His Spots, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# Just so stories, How the Leopard Got His Spots, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before.

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**Who acts:** Ethiopian, Leopard, man · **What happens:** change, be, not see · **To what, where:** skin, man

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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, Leopard, man), 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:pg2781:5:86
# text = So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	changed	change	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	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Leopard	Leopard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	_
15	excited	excited	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	before	before	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | past | Ethiopian | Ethiopian's skin |  |  | then |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Leopard |  |  |  |  | excited *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | Ethiopian | a man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **change** | infinitive | a man *not said here* | Ethiopian's skin |  |  |  | before *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=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.

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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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