---
title: At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to borrow new noses from the Crocodile. Who acts: last things, dear families. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard K
---

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# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 100

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At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to borrow new noses from the Crocodile.

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**Who acts:** last things, dear families · **What happens:** grow, go off, borrow · **To what, where:** one, hurry, new noses

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (last things, dear families), 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:pg2781:6:100
# text = At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to borrow new noses from the Crocodile.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	exciting	exciting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	families	family	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	obl	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nmod	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hurry	hurry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	grey	grey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	greasy	greasy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	Limpopo	Limpopo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	River	River	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	all	all	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	set	set	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
35	about	about	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
36	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	fever	fever	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	42	mark	_	_
42	borrow	borrow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	conj	_	_
43	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obj	_	_
45	from	from	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	Crocodile	Crocodile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | last things |  |  |  |  | exciting *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **go off** | past | Child's dear families | one by one |  | a hurry to the banks of the great grey |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **borrow** | to-infinitive | Child's dear families *not said here* | new noses |  |  |  | from the Crocodile | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent nose=Theme from crocodile=Source |

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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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