---
title: Perhaps she said that when you water a Hedgehog you must drop him in… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps she said that when you water a Hedgehog you must drop him into your paw, and when you meet a Tortoise you must shell him till he uncoils.’ Who acts: Mummy, you, water, Tortoise. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Beginning of the Armadillos, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Just so stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, sentence 21

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Perhaps she said that when you water a Hedgehog you must drop him into your paw, and when you meet a Tortoise you must shell him till he uncoils.’

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**Who acts:** Mummy, you, water, Tortoise · **What happens:** say, water, drop, meet, shell, uncoil · **To what, where:** Hedgehog, paw · **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 (Mummy, you, water, Tortoise), 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:pg2781:8:21
# text = Perhaps she said that when you water a Hedgehog you must drop him into your paw, and when you meet a Tortoise you must shell him till he uncoils.’
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Hedgehog	Hedgehog	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	drop	drop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	paw	paw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	21	mark	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	meet	meet	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	uncoils	uncoil	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Mummy |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **water** |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **drop** | must | water | Hedgehog |  | your paw |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme into paw=Destination |
| 4 | **meet** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **shell** | must | a Tortoise | Hedgehog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **uncoil** | present | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn separate-23.1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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