---
title: ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, ‘but do you ha… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, ‘but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?’ Who acts: you. 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 33

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‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, ‘but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?’

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** scuse, say, happen, see · **To what, where:** me, Child, Crocodile, promiscuous parts · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you), 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:pg2781:6:33
# text = ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, ‘but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?’
1	‘’	‘'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Scuse	scuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Elephant	Elephant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	Child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
11	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	12	advmod	_	_
12	politely	politely	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
26	promiscuous	promiscuous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	parts	part	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scuse** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the Elephant's Child |  |  |  | politely *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **happen** | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive · perfect | you *not said here* | a Crocodile |  | this promiscuous parts |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer crocodile=Stimulus |

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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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