---
title: Just then a Stranger-man came along the river, but he belonged to a… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Just then a Stranger-man came along the river, but he belonged to a far tribe, the Tewaras, and he did not understand one word of Tegumai’s language. Who acts: Stranger man, man. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 27

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Just then a Stranger-man came along the river, but he belonged to a far tribe, the Tewaras, and he did not understand one word of Tegumai’s language.

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**Who acts:** Stranger man, man · **What happens:** come, belong, not understand, word · **To what, where:** river, one word, language

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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 (Stranger man, man), 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:pg2781:9:27
# text = Just then a Stranger-man came along the river, but he belonged to a far tribe, the Tewaras, and he did not understand one word of Tegumai’s language.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	Stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	along	along	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	belonged	belong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	tribe	tribe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Tewaras	Tewaras	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	Tegumai	Tegumai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | a Stranger man |  |  | the river | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme along river=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **belong** | past | man |  |  |  |  | to a far tribe | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **understand** | past · do-support | man | one word of Tegumai's language |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 4 | **word** |  |  | Tegumai's language |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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