---
title: He said to himself,’ If I do not fetch this great Chief’s tribe to h… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: He said to himself,’ If I do not fetch this great Chief’s tribe to help him, he will be slain by his enemies who are coming up on all sides with spears. Who acts: man, I, enemies. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 89

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He said to himself,’ If I do not fetch this great Chief’s tribe to help him, he will be slain by his enemies who are coming up on all sides with spears.

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**Who acts:** man, I, enemies · **What happens:** say, not fetch, help, slay, come up · **To what, where:** man, Chief tribe, sides · **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 (man, I, enemies), 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:pg2781:9:89
# text = He said to himself,’ If I do not fetch this great Chief’s tribe to help him, he will be slain by his enemies who are coming up on all sides with spears.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	INTJ	UH	_	2	parataxis	_	_
7	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
12	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	nsubj	_	_
13	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	tribe	tribe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	slain	slay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	enemies	enemy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
28	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
29	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	up	up	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	34	det	_	_
34	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
35	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	spears	spear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  | man |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **fetch** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · do-support | I | Chief tribe |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tribe=Theme |
| 3 | **help** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **slay** | future · passive | man's enemies | man |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 5 | **come up** | present · progressive | man's enemies |  |  | all sides with spears |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on side=Location |

<!-- .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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