---
title: Then the Elephant’s Child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the Elephant’s Child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful. Who acts: Child, Crocodile, little nose. A sentence of
---

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# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 42

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Then the Elephant’s Child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful.

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**Who acts:** Child, Crocodile, little nose · **What happens:** put down, catch, minute, not be, be · **To what, where:** head, Child

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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 (Child, Crocodile, little nose), 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:pg2781:6:42
# text = Then the Elephant’s Child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Elephant	Elephant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	Child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	down	down	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
10	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Crocodile	Crocodile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	musky	musky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	tusky	tusky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Crocodile	Crocodile	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	42	nsubj	_	_
31	up	up	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	det	_	_
34	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
39	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
44	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
45	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	47	cop	_	_
46	no	no	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
47	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	parataxis	_	_
48	than	than	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	boot	boot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
52	though	though	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	much	much	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
54	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	55	advmod	_	_
55	useful	useful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put down** | past | the Elephant's Child | Child's head |  |  | then | to the Crocodile's musky and tusky mouth; down *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent head=Goal |
| 2 | **catch** | past | the Crocodile | Child |  |  |  | by Crocodile's little nose | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **minute** |  | Crocodile's little nose |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | than a boot; big *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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