---
title: He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on his hind legs; he stuck ou… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on his hind legs; he stuck out his tail for a balance-weight behind him; and he hopped through the Darling Downs. Who acts: Dingo. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Just so stories, The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo, sentence 38

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He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on his hind legs; he stuck out his tail for a balance-weight behind him; and he hopped through the Darling Downs.

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**Who acts:** Dingo · **What happens:** tuck up, hop, stick out · **To what, where:** front legs, hind legs, tail, Darling Downs

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dingo), 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:pg2781:7:38
# text = He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on his hind legs; he stuck out his tail for a balance-weight behind him; and he hopped through the Darling Downs.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tucked	tuck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	front	front	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	hopped	hop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hind	hind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stuck	stick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	balance	balance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
25	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	hopped	hop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
31	through	through	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	Darling	Darling	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	Downs	Down	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tuck up** | past | Dingo | Dingo's front legs |  |  |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent leg=Theme |
| 2 | **hop** | past | Dingo |  |  | Dingo's hind legs |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on leg=Trajectory |
| 3 | **stick out** | past | Dingo | Dingo's tail |  |  |  | for a balance weight; behind Kangaroo | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tail=Theme behind he=Destination |
| 4 | **hop** | past | Dingo |  |  | the Darling Downs |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through down=Trajectory |

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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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