---
title: ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child, ‘but my nose is badly out of… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child, ‘but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink. Who acts: nose, I. 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 57

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‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child, ‘but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.

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**Who acts:** nose, I · **What happens:** scuse, say, be, wait, shrink · **To what, where:** me, Child, shape · **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 (nose, I), 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:pg2781:6:57
# text = ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child, ‘but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.
1	‘’	‘'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Scuse	scuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Elephant	Elephant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	Child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
26	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	shrink	shrink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scuse** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the Elephant's Child |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | my nose |  |  | shape |  | badly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **wait** | present · progressive | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **shrink** | to-infinitive | nose |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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