---
title: Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan, ‘Come and ask me abou… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan, ‘Come and ask me about it tomorrow, because I’m going to wash.’ Who acts: Nqong, 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/7/60/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/7/) / 60

# Just so stories, The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan, ‘Come and ask me about it tomorrow, because I’m going to wash.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nqong, I · **What happens:** say, come, ask, be, go, wash · **To what, where:** bath, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Nqong, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2781:7:60
# text = Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan, ‘Come and ask me about it tomorrow, because I’m going to wash.’
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Nqong	Nqong	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	bath	bath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	pan	pan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
20	tomorrow	tomorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’m	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
25	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	xcomp	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Nqong |  |  | Nqong's bath in the salt pan | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive |  |  | me |  | tomorrow | about pan | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent i=Recipient about it=Topic |
| 4 | **be** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **wash** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/7/59/)
- next →: [sentence 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/7/61/)
- ↑ back to [The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/7/)