--- title: Nobody said anything at all for a longtime, till the Head Chief laug… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics description: Nobody said anything at all for a longtime, till the Head Chief laughed; then the Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara) laughed; then Tegumai laughed till he fell down flat on the bank; then all the Tribe laughed more and worse and louder. Who acts: Nobody, Head Chief, Stranger man, Tewara. A sen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/163/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Just so stories](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/) / [How the First Letter Was Written](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/) / 163 # Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 163 Nobody said anything at all for a longtime, till the Head Chief laughed; then the Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara) laughed; then Tegumai laughed till he fell down flat on the bank; then all the Tribe laughed more and worse and louder. **Who acts:** Nobody, Head Chief, Stranger man, Tewara, Tegumai, Tribe · **What happens:** say, laugh, be, fall down · **To what, where:** anything, all, bank · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Nobody, Head Chief, Stranger man, Tewara), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg2781:9:163 # text = Nobody said anything at all for a longtime, till the Head Chief laughed; then the Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara) laughed; then Tegumai laughed till he fell down flat on the bank; then all the Tribe laughed more and worse and louder. 1 Nobody nobody PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 2 nsubj _ _ 2 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 anything anything PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 2 obj _ _ 4 at at ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 5 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 3 nmod _ _ 6 for for ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 7 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 8 longtime longtime ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 10 till till SCONJ IN _ 14 mark _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 12 Head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 compound _ _ 13 Chief Chief PROPN NNP Number=Sing 14 nsubj _ _ 14 laughed laugh VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 ; ; PUNCT : _ 20 punct _ _ 16 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 20 advmod _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 18 Stranger stranger NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 19 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 18 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 20 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 ccomp _ _ 21 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 25 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 22 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 25 nsubj _ _ 23 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 cop _ _ 24 at at ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 25 least least ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 20 appos _ _ 26 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 Tewara Tewara PROPN NNP Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 28 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 27 punct _ _ 29 laughed laugh VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 25 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 30 ; ; PUNCT : _ 33 punct _ _ 31 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 33 advmod _ _ 32 Tegumai Tegumai PROPN NNP Number=Sing 33 nsubj _ _ 33 laughed laugh VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ _ 34 till till SCONJ IN _ 36 mark _ _ 35 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 36 nsubj _ _ 36 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 33 advcl _ _ 37 down down ADV RB _ 36 advmod _ _ 38 flat flat ADV RB _ 36 advmod _ _ 39 on on ADP IN _ 41 case _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 bank bank NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 42 ; ; PUNCT : _ 47 punct _ _ 43 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 47 advmod _ _ 44 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 47 det:predet _ _ 45 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 46 Tribe Tribe PROPN NNP Number=Sing 47 nsubj _ _ 47 laughed laugh VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 33 conj _ _ 48 more more ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 47 advmod _ _ 49 and and CCONJ CC _ 50 cc _ _ 50 worse bad ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 47 ccomp _ _ 51 and and CCONJ CC _ 52 cc _ _ 52 louder loud ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 50 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 53 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Nobody | anything | | all | | for a longtime | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic | | 2 | **laugh** | past | the Head Chief | | | | | | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **is** | past | the Stranger man | | | | | least *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **laugh** | past | a Tewara | | | | | | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **laugh** | past | Tegumai | | | | then | | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **fall down** | past | Tegumai | | | the bank | | down, flat *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on bank=Location | | 7 | **laugh** | past | the Tribe | | | | then | | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 162](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/162/) - next →: [sentence 164](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/164/) - ↑ back to [How the First Letter Was Written](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/)