---
title: But if I don’t do what she wants, I greatly fear that that haughty C… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: But if I don’t do what she wants, I greatly fear that that haughty Chief, Man-who-turns-his-back-on-callers, will be angry.’ Who acts: I, child, Man. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/46/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / 46

# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But if I don’t do what she wants, I greatly fear that that haughty Chief, Man-who-turns-his-back-on-callers, will be angry.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, child, Man · **What happens:** not do, want, fear, turn, be · **To what, where:** haughty Chief

<!-- .vabout -->
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, child, Man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2781:9:46
# text = But if I don’t do what she wants, I greatly fear that that haughty Chief, Man-who-turns-his-back-on-callers, will be angry.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	obj	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	wants	want	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	fear	fear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
16	haughty	haughty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	Man	Man	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	turns	turn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	callers	caller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	cop	_	_
35	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **want** | present | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **fear** | present | I | haughty Chief and Man |  |  |  | greatly *property* | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer chief=Stimulus |
| 4 | **turn** | present | Man |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | future |  |  |  |  |  | angry *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/45/)
- next →: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/47/)
- ↑ back to [How the First Letter Was Written](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/9/)