---
title: When he wanted grass he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: When he wanted grass he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees as he used to do. Who acts: Child. 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 82

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When he wanted grass he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees as he used to do.

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**Who acts:** Child · **What happens:** want, pluck up, go, use, do · **To what, where:** grass, ground, knees

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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), 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:pg2781:6:82
# text = When he wanted grass he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees 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	6	advcl	_	_
4	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	plucked	pluck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	up	up	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	15	mark	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	fixed	_	_
15	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | Child | grass |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot grass=Theme |
| 2 | **pluck up** | past | Child | grass |  | the ground |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent grass=Theme from ground=Source |
| 3 | **go** | gerund | Child *not said here* |  |  | Child's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 4 | **use** | past | Child |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **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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