---
title: This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk. — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk. Who acts: This, Coloured Rock Snakes. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/47/)

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# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 47

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This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.

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**Who acts:** This, Coloured Rock Snakes · **What happens:** be, talk · **To what, where:** way

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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 (This, Coloured Rock Snakes), 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:pg2781:6:47
# text = This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	Bi	bi	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Python	python	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
14	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	15	advmod	_	_
15	talk	talk	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | This | the way |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **talk** | present | Coloured Rock Snakes | the way *not said here* |  |  |  | always *property* | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent way=Patient |

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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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