---
title: ‘Son, son!’ said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving he… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Son, son!’ said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, ‘now attend to me and remember what I say. Who acts: Son, I. 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 72

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‘Son, son!’ said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, ‘now attend to me and remember what I say.

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**Who acts:** Son, I · **What happens:** say, wave, attend, remember · **To what, where:** mother, tail, me · **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 (Son, I), 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:pg2781:8:72
# text = ‘Son, son!’ said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, ‘now attend to me and remember what I say.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Son	Son	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	12	advmod	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	graciously	graciously	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	waving	wave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
22	attend	attend	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	remember	remember	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	obj	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Son | son's mother |  |  | time |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent mother=Topic |
| 2 | **wave** | gerund | Son *not said here* | mother's tail |  |  |  | graciously *property* | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 3 | **attend** | infinitive |  |  | me |  | now |  | vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent to i=Theme |
| 4 | **remember** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

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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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