---
title: ‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘for I am the Crocodi… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘for I am the Crocodile,’ and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true. Who acts: Crocodile, I, tail. 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 38

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‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘for I am the Crocodile,’ and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.

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**Who acts:** Crocodile, I, tail · **What happens:** come, say, be, weep, show · **To what, where:** crocodile tears · **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 (Crocodile, I, tail), 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:pg2781:6:38
# text = ‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘for I am the Crocodile,’ and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
3	hither	hither	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	One	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Crocodile	Crocodile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Crocodile	Crocodile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
24	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | Little One *vocative*; hither *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Crocodile |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | for the Crocodile | tree rules |
| 4 | **weep** | past | Crocodile | crocodile tears |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent tear=Theme |
| 5 | **show** | to-infinitive | Crocodile *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | past | tail |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |

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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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