---
title: ‘That’s unkind of you,’ said Stickly-Prickly, ‘seeing that this time… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘That’s unkind of you,’ said Stickly-Prickly, ‘seeing that this time yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.’ Who acts: That, you. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Beginning of the Armadillos, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, sentence 138

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‘That’s unkind of you,’ said Stickly-Prickly, ‘seeing that this time yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.’

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**Who acts:** That, you · **What happens:** be, say, see, try, scoop · **To what, where:** time, me, shell · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (That, you), 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:pg2781:8:138
# text = ‘That’s unkind of you,’ said Stickly-Prickly, ‘seeing that this time yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	unkind	unkind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Stickly	stickly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Prickly	prickly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	ccomp	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:unmarked	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	scoop	scoop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	out	out	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	paw	paw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | That |  |  |  |  | of you; unkind *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  | prickly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **see** | gerund |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **try** | past | you | this time  yesterday *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **scoop** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | me |  | my shell |  | with your paw | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent i=Theme out shell=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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