---
title: He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. Who acts: Elephant, tail feathers, tall aunt. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 5

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He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw.

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**Who acts:** Elephant, tail feathers, tall aunt · **What happens:** ask, grow, spank · **To what, where:** tall aunt, Elephant

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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 (Elephant, tail feathers, tall aunt), 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:pg2781:6:5
# text = He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	aunt	aunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Ostrich	Ostrich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
12	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	just	just	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	aunt	aunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Ostrich	Ostrich	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	appos	_	_
25	spanked	spank	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
29	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
31	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	claw	claw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Elephant |  | Elephant's tall aunt |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent aunt=Recipient |
| 2 | **grow** | past | Africa's tail feathers |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **spank** | past | Elephant's tall aunt | Elephant |  |  |  | with Africa's hard hard claw | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with claw=Instrument |

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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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