--- title: So he pulled, and the Elephant’s Child pulled, and the Crocodile pul… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics description: So he pulled, and the Elephant’s Child pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the Elephant’s Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant’s Child’s nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo. Who acts: Snake, Child, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/54/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Just so stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/) / [The Elephant’s Child](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/) / 54 # Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 54 So he pulled, and the Elephant’s Child pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the Elephant’s Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant’s Child’s nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo. **Who acts:** Snake, Child, Crocodile, you · **What happens:** pull, let, go, hear · **To what, where:** hardest, last, plop 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 (Snake, Child, Crocodile, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg2781:6:54 # text = So he pulled, and the Elephant’s Child pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the Elephant’s Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant’s Child’s nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo. 1 So so ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 2 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 pulled pull VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 5 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 Elephant Elephant PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 8 ’s 's PART POS _ 7 case _ _ 9 Child child NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 nsubj _ _ 10 pulled pull VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 12 and and CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 13 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 Crocodile Crocodile PROPN NNP Number=Sing 15 nsubj _ _ 15 pulled pull VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 16 ; ; PUNCT : _ 33 punct _ _ 17 but but CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 Elephant Elephant PROPN NNP Number=Sing 21 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 20 ’s 's PART POS _ 19 case _ _ 21 Child child NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nsubj _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 24 Bi bi ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 25 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 24 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 26 Coloured coloured ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 27 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 26 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 28 Python python NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 29 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 30 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 30 Rock rock NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 31 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 30 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 32 Snake snake NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 conj _ _ 33 pulled pull VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 34 hardest hard ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 33 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 35 ; ; PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 36 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 37 at at ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 38 last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 41 obl _ _ 39 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 40 Crocodile Crocodile PROPN NNP Number=Sing 41 nsubj _ _ 41 let let VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 42 go go VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 41 xcomp _ _ 43 of of ADP IN _ 49 case _ _ 44 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 45 det _ _ 45 Elephant Elephant PROPN NNP Number=Sing 47 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 46 ’s 's PART POS _ 45 case _ _ 47 Child child NOUN NN Number=Sing 49 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 48 ’s 's PART POS _ 47 case _ _ 49 nose nose NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 obl _ _ 50 with with ADP IN _ 52 case _ _ 51 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 52 det _ _ 52 plop plop NOUN NN Number=Sing 49 nmod _ _ 53 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 56 obj _ _ 54 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 56 nsubj _ _ 55 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 56 aux _ _ 56 hear hear VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 52 acl:relcl _ _ 57 all all ADV RB _ 58 advmod _ _ 58 up up ADV RB _ 56 advmod _ _ 59 and and CCONJ CC _ 62 cc _ _ 60 down down ADP IN _ 62 case _ _ 61 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 62 det _ _ 62 Limpopo limpopo NOUN NN Number=Sing 58 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 63 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **pull** | past | Snake | | | | | | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **pull** | past | the Elephant's Child | | | | | | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **pull** | past | the Crocodile | | | | | | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **pull** | past | the Elephant's Child and the Coloured Python Rock Snake | hardest | | | | | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hard=Theme | | 5 | **let** | past | the Crocodile | | | last | | | tree rules | | 6 | **go** | infinitive | the Crocodile *not said here* | | | | | of the Elephant's Child's nose with a plop | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme of nose=Initial\_Location | | 7 | **hear** | could | you | a plop | | | | | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/53/) - next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/55/) - ↑ back to [The Elephant’s Child](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/)