---
title: And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them mo… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop. Who acts: trees, Crocodile. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 19

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And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop.

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**Who acts:** trees, Crocodile · **What happens:** spank, ask, stop · **To what, where:** Crocodile, trees

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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 (trees, Crocodile), 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:pg2781:6:19
# text = And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	spanked	spank	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	7	advmod	_	_
7	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	16	advmod	_	_
16	politely	politely	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spank** | past | trees *= tree* | Crocodile |  |  |  | for luck; all *property* | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Crocodile |  | trees *= tree* |  |  | politely *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 3 | **stop** | to-infinitive | Crocodile *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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