---
title: ‘He has stuck my Tegumai all full of spears, and frightened poor Taf… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘He has stuck my Tegumai all full of spears, and frightened poor Taffy so that her hair stands all on end; and not content with that, he brings me a horrid picture of how it was done. Who acts: man, hair. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written, with its 
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 109

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‘He has stuck my Tegumai all full of spears, and frightened poor Taffy so that her hair stands all on end; and not content with that, he brings me a horrid picture of how it was done.

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**Who acts:** man, hair · **What happens:** stick, stand, bring, be · **To what, where:** Tegumai, end, horrid picture, me

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, hair), 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:pg2781:9:109
# text = ‘He has stuck my Tegumai all full of spears, and frightened poor Taffy so that her hair stands all on end; and not content with that, he brings me a horrid picture of how it was done.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	Tegumai	Tegumai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	all	all	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
16	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	20	mark	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	fixed	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	stands	stand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	content	content	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	brings	bring	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
33	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	horrid	horrid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	picture	picture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	41	advmod	_	_
39	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
41	done	done	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stick** | present · perfect | man |  | my Tegumai and frightened poor Taffy |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent tegumai=Destination |
| 2 | **stand** | present | Teshumai's hair |  |  |  | on end |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on end=Location |
| 3 | **bring** | present | man | a horrid picture | me |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent i=Destination picture=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | hair |  |  |  |  | done *property* | tree rules |

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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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