---
title: I couldn’t help it looking as if it stuck into Daddy’s head--there w… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: I couldn’t help it looking as if it stuck into Daddy’s head--there wasn’t room on the birch-bark; and those things that Mummy called bad people are my beavers. Who acts: I, fish, room, Mummy. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written, with its dependency tr
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 158

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I couldn’t help it looking as if it stuck into Daddy’s head--there wasn’t room on the birch-bark; and those things that Mummy called bad people are my beavers.

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**Who acts:** I, fish, room, Mummy, things · **What happens:** not help, look, stick, be, call · **To what, where:** fish, head, things, beavers · **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, fish, room, Mummy), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2781:9:158
# text = I couldn’t help it looking as if it stuck into Daddy’s head--there wasn’t room on the birch-bark; and those things that Mummy called bad people are my beavers.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	stuck	stick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	Daddy	Daddy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
27	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
28	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obj	_	_
30	Mummy	Mummy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	_
32	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
34	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
35	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	beavers	beaver	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **help** | could | I | fish |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **stick** | past | fish |  |  | Daddy's head |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into head=Destination |
| 4 | **be** | past | room on the birch bark |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **call** | past | Mummy | that things |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme people=Result |
| 6 | **is a** | present | that things | my beavers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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