Just so stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, sentence 283

‘It’s only our secret-s’prise, Mummy dear, and we’ll tell you all about it the very minute it’s done; but please don’t ask me what it is now, or else I’ll have to tell.’

Who acts: game, secret s’prise, minute, it · What happens: be, tell, do, not ask · To what, where: secret s’prise, ’, you, s’prise, me · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the Alphabet Was Made. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (game, secret s’prise, minute, it), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	‘	'	PUNCT	_	8 s’prise	punct
2	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 s’prise	nsubj
3	’s	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 s’prise	cop
4	only	only	ADV	_	8 s’prise	advmod
5	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 s’prise	nmod:poss
6	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 s’prise	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 secret	punct
8	s’prise	s'prise	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 tell	nsubj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 Mummy	punct
10	Mummy	Mummy	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 s’prise	appos
11	dear	dear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 Mummy	amod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 tell	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 tell	cc
14	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	16 tell	nsubj
15	’ll	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 tell	aux
16	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
17	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	16 tell	iobj
18	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	17 you	nmod:unmarked
19	about	about	ADP	_	20 it	case
20	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 tell	obl
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 minute	det
22	very	very	ADV	_	23 minute	advmod
23	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 tell	obj
24	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 done	nsubj:pass
25	’s	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	26 done	aux:pass
26	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	23 minute	acl:relcl
27	;	;	PUNCT	_	32 ask	punct
28	but	but	CCONJ	_	32 ask	cc
29	please	please	INTJ	_	32 ask	discourse
30	do	do	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	32 ask	aux
31	n’t	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	32 ask	advmod
32	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 tell	conj
33	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	32 ask	iobj
34	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	43 have	obj
35	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 have	nsubj
36	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	43 have	cop
37	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	43 have	advmod
38	,	,	PUNCT	_	43 have	punct
39	or	or	CCONJ	_	43 have	cc
40	else	else	ADV	_	43 have	advmod
41	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	43 have	nsubj
42	’ll	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	43 have	aux
43	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	32 ask	ccomp
44	to	to	PART	_	45 tell	mark
45	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 have	xcomp
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 tell	punct
47	’	'	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 tell	obj

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	game	our secret s’prise				tree rules
2	tell speech: assert	future	our secret s’prise	’	you	minute	about game	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient '=Topic
3	do	present · passive	the minute not said here	s’prise = s'prise				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality
4	not ask speech: ask	infinitive · do-support	our secret s’prise not said here		me			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic
5	is	present	it			now	else, have property	tree rules
6	tell speech: assert	to-infinitive						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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.

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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