--- title: Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant’s Child put out his… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics description: Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant’s Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth. Who acts: Elephant, Child. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, with its depe --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/67/) [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/) / 67 # Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 67 Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant’s Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth. **Who acts:** Elephant, Child · **What happens:** think, do, put out, pluck, dust, stuff · **To what, where:** trunk, large bundle, bundle, own mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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, Child), 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:pg2781:6:67 # text = Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant’s Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth. 1 Before before SCONJ IN _ 3 mark _ _ 2 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 thought think VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 7 obj _ _ 5 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 7 nsubj _ _ 6 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 aux _ _ 7 doing do VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 3 ccomp _ _ 8 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 Elephant Elephant PROPN NNP Number=Sing 11 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 10 ’s 's PART POS _ 9 case _ _ 11 Child child NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nsubj _ _ 12 put put VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 13 out out ADP RP _ 12 compound:prt _ _ 14 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 15 trunk trunk NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obj _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 17 plucked pluck VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 conj _ _ 18 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 19 large large ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 20 amod _ _ 20 bundle bundle NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obj _ _ 21 of of ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 22 grass grass NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 24 dusted dust VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 conj _ _ 25 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 24 obj _ _ 26 clean clean ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 xcomp _ _ 27 against against ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 28 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 31 nmod:poss _ _ 29 fore fore NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 30 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 29 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 31 legs leg NOUN NNS Number=Plur 26 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 34 cc _ _ 34 stuffed stuff VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 35 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 obj _ _ 36 into into ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 37 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 39 nmod:poss _ _ 38 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 amod _ _ 39 mouth mouth NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 40 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Elephant | | | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 2 | **do** | past · progressive | Elephant | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality | | 3 | **put out** | past | the Elephant's Child | Elephant's trunk | | | | | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent trunk=Goal | | 4 | **pluck** | past | the Elephant's Child *not said here* | a large bundle of grass | | | | | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bundle=Patient | | 5 | **dust** | past | the Elephant's Child *not said here* | bundle | | | | clean *property* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme | | 6 | **stuff** | past | Elephant *not said here* | bundle | | Elephant's own mouth | | | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme into mouth=Destination | 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 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/66/) - next →: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/68/) - ↑ back to [The Elephant’s Child](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/)