---
title: Therefore he turned to me his back, and let the wise and wonderful c… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Therefore he turned to me his back, and let the wise and wonderful child draw the terrible picture showing me his difficulties. Who acts: Chief, wise child, terrible picture. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 92

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Therefore he turned to me his back, and let the wise and wonderful child draw the terrible picture showing me his difficulties.

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**Who acts:** Chief, wise child, terrible picture · **What happens:** turn, let, draw, show · **To what, where:** back, me, wise child, terrible picture, difficulties

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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 (Chief, wise child, terrible picture), 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:pg2781:9:92
# text = Therefore he turned to me his back, and let the wise and wonderful child draw the terrible picture showing me his difficulties.
1	Therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
12	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
16	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	picture	picture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	showing	show	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	difficulties	difficulty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | Chief | Chief's back | me |  |  | therefore *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent back=Theme to i=Result |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive | Chief *not said here* | the wise child |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **draw** | infinitive | the wise child *not said here* | the terrible picture |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent picture=Theme |
| 4 | **show** | gerund | the terrible picture *not said here* | Chief's difficulties | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient difficulty=Topic |

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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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