---
title: He was not a Jute or an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might w… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He was not a Jute or an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might well have been, Best Beloved, but never mind why. Who acts: man, Dravidian. 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 2

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He was not a Jute or an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might well have been, Best Beloved, but never mind why.

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**Who acts:** man, Dravidian · **What happens:** not be, be, not mind · **To what, where:** Jute, Best Beloved

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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 (man, Dravidian), 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:pg2781:9:2
# text = He was not a Jute or an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might well have been, Best Beloved, but never mind why.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Jute	Jute	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Angle	angle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	even	even	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Dravidian	Dravidian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
17	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
18	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	Best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	23	amod	_	_
23	Beloved	Beloved	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	mind	mind	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
28	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | man | a Jute or a Angle or a Dravidian |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | might · perfect | a Dravidian | Best Beloved |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **mind** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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