---
title: “Awful” isn’t a pretty word, but it could be a convenience, now you… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: “Awful” isn’t a pretty word, but it could be a convenience, now you mention it, if we could write home.’ Who acts: Awful, word, you, we. 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 26

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“Awful” isn’t a pretty word, but it could be a convenience, now you mention it, if we could write home.’

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**Who acts:** Awful, word, you, we · **What happens:** not be, be, mention, write · **To what, where:** pretty word, convenience, word

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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 (Awful, word, you, we), 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:pg2781:9:26
# text = “Awful” isn’t a pretty word, but it could be a convenience, now you mention it, if we could write home.’
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Awful	awful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	convenience	convenience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	mention	mention	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
26	home	home	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | Awful | a pretty word |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | could | word | a convenience |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **mention** *speech: other* | present | you | word |  |  | now |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 4 | **write** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | we |  |  |  |  | home *property* | 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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