---
title: Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of th… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’ Who acts: Kolokolo. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/16/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Elephant’s Child](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/) / 16

# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Kolokolo · **What happens:** say, go, find out · **To what, where:** banks · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Kolokolo), 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:pg2781:6:16
# text = Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	Kolokolo	Kolokolo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	Bird	Bird	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	mournful	mournful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
19	grey	grey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	greasy	greasy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	Limpopo	Limpopo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	River	River	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	all	all	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	set	set	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
29	about	about	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	fever	fever	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	find	find	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
37	out	out	ADP	RP	_	36	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Kolokolo |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** | infinitive |  |  |  | the banks of the great green greasy Limpopo River |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to bank=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **find out** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/15/)
- next →: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/17/)
- ↑ back to [The Elephant’s Child](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/)