---
title: My mother told me that I was to drop one of you two into the water,… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: My mother told me that I was to drop one of you two into the water, and as you seem so anxious to be dropped I think you don’t want to be dropped. Who acts: mother, I, you. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Beginning of the Armadillos, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/54/)

<!-- 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 Beginning of the Armadillos](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/) / 54

# Just so stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
My mother told me that I was to drop one of you two into the water, and as you seem so anxious to be dropped I think you don’t want to be dropped.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mother, I, you · **What happens:** tell, be, seem, drop, think, not want · **To what, where:** me, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (mother, I, you), 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:pg2781:8:54
# text = My mother told me that I was to drop one of you two into the water, and as you seem so anxious to be dropped I think you don’t want to be dropped.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	drop	drop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	obj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	seem	seem	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	advcl	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	n’t	n't	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	ccomp	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | My mother |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is** *not said to happen* | past | I |  |  | the water |  | drop *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **seem** | present | you |  |  |  |  | anxious *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **drop** | to-infinitive · passive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **want** | present · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **drop** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V» |

<!-- .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 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/55/)
- ↑ back to [The Beginning of the Armadillos](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/8/)