---
title: ‘Taffy dear, I’m afraid we’re in for a little trouble,’ said her Dad… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Taffy dear, I’m afraid we’re in for a little trouble,’ said her Daddy, and put his arm round her, so she didn’t care. Who acts: I, we, person. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 150

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‘Taffy dear, I’m afraid we’re in for a little trouble,’ said her Daddy, and put his arm round her, so she didn’t care.

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**Who acts:** I, we, person · **What happens:** be, 're, say, put, not care · **To what, where:** Daddy, arm · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, we, person), 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:pg2781:9:150
# text = ‘Taffy dear, I’m afraid we’re in for a little trouble,’ said her Daddy, and put his arm round her, so she didn’t care.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’m	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
7	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’re	're	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	Daddy	daddy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	put	put	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	round	round	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present | I |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **'re** | past | we |  |  |  |  | for a little trouble | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | person's Daddy |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent daddy=Topic |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive |  | Tegumai's arm |  |  |  | round person | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent arm=Goal |
| 5 | **not** **care** | past · do-support | person |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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