---
title: ‘What are you doing that for?’ said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What are you doing that for?’ said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. Who acts: you. 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 56

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‘What are you doing that for?’ said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** do, say · **To what, where:** that, Bi Coloured Python Snake · **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 (you), 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:pg2781:6:56
# text = ‘What are you doing that for?’ said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
12	Bi	bi	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Python	python	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present · progressive | you | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the Bi Coloured Python Snake |  |  |  |  | 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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