---
title: When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetl… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles; and when he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises. Who acts: Jaguar, Tortoise. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Beginning of th
---

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# Just so stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, sentence 7

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When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles; and when he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises.

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**Who acts:** Jaguar, Tortoise · **What happens:** not catch, eat, go, tell · **To what, where:** deer, frogs, beetles, Mother Jaguar, Jaguar, hedgehogs · **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 (Jaguar, 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:pg2781:8:7
# text = When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles; and when he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	deer	deer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	beetles	beetle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
22	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	beetles	beetle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	Jaguar	Jaguar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	_
36	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	38	advmod	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	_
39	hedgehogs	hedgehog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obj	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	tortoises	tortoise	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **catch** | could | Jaguar | deer or monkeys |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deer=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** | would | Jaguar | frogs and beetles |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent frog=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **catch** | could | Jaguar | frogs and beetles |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent frog=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | past | Jaguar | beetles *not said here* | Mother Jaguar |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location beetle=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Tortoise |  | Jaguar |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **eat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Tortoise *not said here* | hedgehogs and tortoises |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hedgehog=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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