---
title: Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail ou… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and the Elephant’s Child stepped back most politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again. Who acts: Crocodile, Child. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, with its dependenc
---

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# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 34

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Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and the Elephant’s Child stepped back most politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again.

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**Who acts:** Crocodile, Child · **What happens:** wink, lift, step back, not wish, spank · **To what, where:** other eye, tail, mud, most

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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 (Crocodile, Child), 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:pg2781:6:34
# text = Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and the Elephant’s Child stepped back most politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Crocodile	Crocodile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	winked	wink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	13	det:predet	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Elephant	Elephant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	Child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	back	back	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	obl	_	_
27	politely	politely	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	spanked	spank	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	xcomp	_	_
37	again	again	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wink** | past | the Crocodile | the other eye |  |  | then |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 2 | **lift** | past | the Crocodile *not said here* | Crocodile's tail |  | the mud |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tail=Theme out mud=Destination |
| 3 | **step back** | past | the Elephant's Child | most |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **wish** | past · do-support | Child |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **spank** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · passive | Child *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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.

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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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