--- title: ‘It is,’ said the Elephant’s Child, and before he thought what he wa… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics description: ‘It is,’ said the Elephant’s Child, and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears. Who acts: sun, Child, schloopy. A --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/71/) [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/) / 71 # Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 71 ‘It is,’ said the Elephant’s Child, and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears. **Who acts:** sun, Child, schloopy · **What happens:** be, say, think, do, schloop up, slap · **To what, where:** Child, schloop, banks, sun · **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 (sun, Child, schloopy), 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:pg2781:6:71 # text = ‘It is,’ said the Elephant’s Child, and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears. 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 6 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 It it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 3 is be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 5 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 3 punct _ _ 6 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|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 , _ 15 punct _ _ 12 and and CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 13 before before SCONJ IN _ 15 mark _ _ 14 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 nsubj _ _ 15 thought think VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 16 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 19 obj _ _ 17 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 18 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 19 aux _ _ 19 doing do VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 15 ccomp _ _ 20 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 21 schlooped schloop VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 19 ccomp _ _ 22 up up ADP RP _ 21 compound:prt _ _ 23 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 schloop schloop NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obj _ _ 25 of of ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 26 mud mud NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nmod _ _ 27 from from ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 banks bank NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 obl _ _ 30 of of ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 31 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 32 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 33 grey grey NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 34 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 33 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 35 green green ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 38 punct _ _ 37 greasy greasy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 38 Limpopo Limpopo PROPN NNP Number=Sing 29 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 39 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 40 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 41 slapped slap VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 42 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 obj _ _ 43 on on ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 44 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 45 nmod:poss _ _ 45 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 46 , , PUNCT , _ 49 punct _ _ 47 where where ADV WRB PronType=Rel 49 advmod _ _ 48 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 49 nsubj _ _ 49 made make VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 41 conj _ _ 50 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 57 det _ _ 51 cool cool ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 57 amod _ _ 52 schloopy schloopy NOUN NN Number=Sing 57 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 53 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 52 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 54 sloshy sloshy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 57 amod _ _ 55 mud mud NOUN NN Number=Sing 57 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 56 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 55 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 57 cap cap NOUN NN Number=Sing 49 obj _ _ 58 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 59 advmod _ _ 59 trickly trickly ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 49 xcomp _ _ 60 behind behind ADP IN _ 62 case _ _ 61 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 62 nmod:poss _ _ 62 ears ear NOUN NNS Number=Plur 59 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 63 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **be** | present | | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | sun | the Elephant's Child | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Child | | | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 4 | **do** | past · progressive | Child | a schloop of mud | | the banks of the great green greasy Limpopo | | | tree rules | | 5 | **schloop up** | participle | Child | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **slap** | past | sun *not said here* | sun | | | | on Child's head | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent it=Instrument on head=Patient | | 7 | **make** | past | sun | | | | | trickly *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material | | 8 | **cap** | | schloopy | | | | | | tree rules | 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 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/70/) - next →: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/72/) - ↑ back to [The Elephant’s Child](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/)