---
title: One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes th… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this ‘satiable Elephant’s Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. Who acts: Child, Elephant. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 12

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One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this ‘satiable Elephant’s Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before.

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**Who acts:** Child, Elephant · **What happens:** ask, not ask · **To what, where:** new fine question

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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 (Child, Elephant), 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:pg2781:6:12
# text = One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this ‘satiable Elephant’s Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
2	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Precession	Precession	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Equinoxes	Equinox	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	conj	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	satiable	satiable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	Elephant	Elephant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	Child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	_
29	before	before	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | satiable Elephant's Child | a new fine question |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* | past · perfect | Elephant | a new fine question *not said here* |  |  |  | before *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |

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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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