---
title: But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant’s Child--who… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant’s Child--who was full of ‘satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions. Who acts: Child, Elephant. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/3/)

<!-- 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/) / 3

# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant’s Child--who was full of ‘satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Child, Elephant · **What happens:** be, mean, ask · **To what, where:** many questions · **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 (Child, Elephant), 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:pg2781:6:3
# text = But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant’s Child--who was full of ‘satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	nsubj	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	Elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	Elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Elephant	Elephant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	Child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	satiable	satiable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	curtiosity	curtiosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	nsubj	_	_
26	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
29	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	28	advmod	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | a Elephant's Child |  |  |  |  | of satiable curtiosity; full *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Elephant | many questions |  |  | ever |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |

<!-- .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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Elephant’s Child](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/)