---
title: When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instea… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do. Who acts: Child, fruit. 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 81

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When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do.

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**Who acts:** Child, fruit · **What happens:** want, eat, pull down, wait, fall, use · **To what, where:** fruit, tree

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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 (Child, fruit), 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:pg2781:6:81
# text = When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
9	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	17	mark	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | Child | fruit |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot fruit=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | Child *not said here* | fruit *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **pull down** | past | Child | fruit |  | a tree |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent fruit=Theme from tree=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **wait** | gerund | Child *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fall** | to-infinitive | fruit |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **use** | past | Child |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **do** | to-infinitive | Child *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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