---
title: But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy’s fault), v… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy’s fault), very few little girls have ever liked learning to read or write. Who acts: I, fuss. 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 177

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But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy’s fault), very few little girls have ever liked learning to read or write.

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**Who acts:** I, fuss · **What happens:** suppose, be, like, learn, read, write · **To what, where:** fault, few little girls · **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, fuss), 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:pg2781:9:177
# text = But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy’s fault), very few little girls have ever liked learning to read or write.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	from	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nmod	_	_
7	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	suppose	suppose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	fault	fault	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	25	advmod	_	_
25	liked	like	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	_
26	learning	learn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	xcomp	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **suppose** | present | I |  |  |  | day |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | fuss | all Taffy's fault |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **like** | present · perfect · passive |  | few little girls |  |  | ever |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **learn** *not said to happen* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **read** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **write** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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