--- title: ‘I’ve noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics description: ‘I’ve noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and that you’re growing to look rather more like a pinecone, and less like a chestnut-burr, than you used to.’ Who acts: prickles, you. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Beginning of the Armadillos, with its --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/122/) [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 Beginning of the Armadillos](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/) / 122 # Just so stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, sentence 122 ‘I’ve noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and that you’re growing to look rather more like a pinecone, and less like a chestnut-burr, than you used to.’ **Who acts:** prickles, you · **What happens:** notice, seem, melt, be, grow, look · **To what, where:** I · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Beginning of the Armadillos. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prickles, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg2781:8:122 # text = ‘I’ve noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and that you’re growing to look rather more like a pinecone, and less like a chestnut-burr, than you used to.’ 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 3 ’ve have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 aux:pass _ _ 4 noticed notice VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 5 that that SCONJ IN _ 8 mark _ _ 6 your your PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 7 nmod:poss _ _ 7 prickles prickle NOUN NNS Number=Plur 8 nsubj _ _ 8 seem seem VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 ccomp _ _ 9 to to PART TO _ 11 mark _ _ 10 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 11 aux _ _ 11 melting melt VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 8 advcl _ _ 12 into into ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 13 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 11 obl _ _ 14 another another DET DT PronType=Ind 13 fixed _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 17 that that SCONJ IN _ 19 mark _ _ 18 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 19 ’re be VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 39 advcl _ _ 20 growing grow VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 19 xcomp _ _ 21 to to PART TO _ 22 mark _ _ 22 look look VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 20 xcomp _ _ 23 rather rather ADV RB _ 24 advmod _ _ 24 more more ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 22 advmod _ _ 25 like like ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 26 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 pinecone pinecone NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 30 less less ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 35 advmod _ _ 31 like like ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 32 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 33 chestnut chestnut NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 34 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 33 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 35 burr burr NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 37 than than SCONJ IN _ 39 mark _ _ 38 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 used use VERB VBD Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 40 to to PART TO _ 39 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 42 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **notice** | present · passive | | I | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **seem** | present | your prickles | | | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **melt** | to-infinitive · progressive | your prickles *not said here* | | | | | into one | vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material into one=Product | | 4 | **does** | present | you | | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **grow** | gerund | you *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **look** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 7 | **use** | past | you | | | | | | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/121/) - next →: [sentence 123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/123/) - ↑ back to [The Beginning of the Armadillos](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/)