---
title: I only meant to explain to Your Lordliness that I’ve had nothing to… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: I only meant to explain to Your Lordliness that I’ve had nothing to eat since morning, and I’m very empty indeed.’ Who acts: I. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo, sentence 57

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I only meant to explain to Your Lordliness that I’ve had nothing to eat since morning, and I’m very empty indeed.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** mean, explain, have, eat, be · **To what, where:** Lordliness, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I), 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:pg2781:7:57
# text = I only meant to explain to Your Lordliness that I’ve had nothing to eat since morning, and I’m very empty indeed.’
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	Lordliness	lordliness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’ve	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl	_	_
16	since	since	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’m	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
24	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | Your Lordliness |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to lordliness=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | present | I | Your Lordliness |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Patient |
| 4 | **have** | past |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 5 | **eat** | to-infinitive |  | nothing *not said here* |  |  | morning |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **be** | present | I |  |  |  |  | empty, indeed *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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