---
title: Tegumai’s spear was made of wood with shark’s teeth at the end, and… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Tegumai’s spear was made of wood with shark’s teeth at the end, and before he had caught any fish at all he accidentally broke it clean across by jabbing it down too hard on the bottom of the river. Who acts: spear. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 12

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Tegumai’s spear was made of wood with shark’s teeth at the end, and before he had caught any fish at all he accidentally broke it clean across by jabbing it down too hard on the bottom of the river.

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**Who acts:** spear · **What happens:** make, catch, break, jab down · **To what, where:** spear, all, fish

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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 (spear), 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:pg2781:9:12
# text = Tegumai’s spear was made of wood with shark’s teeth at the end, and before he had caught any fish at all he accidentally broke it clean across by jabbing it down too hard on the bottom of the river.
1	Tegumai	Tegumai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’s	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	shark	shark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
21	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	obl	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	accidentally	accidentally	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	xcomp	_	_
30	across	across	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
31	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	jabbing	jab	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	down	down	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
35	too	too	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	39	advmod	_	_
37	on	on	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past · passive |  | Tegumai's spear |  |  |  | of wood; with shark's teeth at the end | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **catch** | past · perfect · passive |  | spear |  | all |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **break** | past | spear | fish |  |  |  | accidentally, across, clean *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |
| 4 | **jab down** | gerund | spear *not said here* | fish |  |  |  | on the bottom of the river | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent it=Instrument on bottom=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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