Just so stories, The Elephant’s Child, sentence 8

He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof; and he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw.

Who acts: Elephant, eyes, broad aunt, melons, hairy uncle · What happens: ask, be, spank, taste · To what, where: broad aunt, Elephant, hairy uncle

This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Elephant, eyes, broad aunt, melons), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 aunt	nmod:poss
4	broad	broad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 aunt	amod
5	aunt	aunt	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asked	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 Hippopotamus	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Hippopotamus	det
8	Hippopotamus	Hippopotamus	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 aunt	appos
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 red	punct
10	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	14 red	advmod
11	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 eyes	nmod:poss
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 red	nsubj
13	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 red	cop
14	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 aunt	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 spanked	punct
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 spanked	cc
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 aunt	nmod:poss
18	broad	broad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 aunt	amod
19	aunt	aunt	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 spanked	nsubj
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 Hippopotamus	punct
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 Hippopotamus	det
22	Hippopotamus	Hippopotamus	PROPN	Number=Sing	19 aunt	appos
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 aunt	punct
24	spanked	spank	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 asked	conj
25	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 spanked	obj
26	with	with	ADP	_	31 hoof	case
27	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	31 hoof	nmod:poss
28	broad	broad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 hoof	amod
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 broad	punct
30	broad	broad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 hoof	amod
31	hoof	hoof	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 spanked	obl
32	;	;	PUNCT	_	35 asked	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 asked	cc
34	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 asked	nsubj
35	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 asked	parataxis
36	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	38 uncle	nmod:poss
37	hairy	hairy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	38 uncle	amod
38	uncle	uncle	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 asked	obj
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 Baboon	punct
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 Baboon	det
41	Baboon	Baboon	PROPN	Number=Sing	38 uncle	appos
42	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 tasted	punct
43	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	45 tasted	advmod
44	melons	melon	NOUN	Number=Plur	45 tasted	nsubj
45	tasted	taste	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 asked	conj
46	just	just	ADV	_	47 so	advmod
47	so	so	ADV	_	45 tasted	advmod
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 spanked	punct
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	57 spanked	cc
50	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	52 uncle	nmod:poss
51	hairy	hairy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	52 uncle	amod
52	uncle	uncle	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 spanked	nsubj
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	55 Baboon	punct
54	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	55 Baboon	det
55	Baboon	Baboon	PROPN	Number=Sing	52 uncle	appos
56	,	,	PUNCT	_	52 uncle	punct
57	spanked	spank	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 asked	conj
58	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	57 spanked	obj
59	with	with	ADP	_	64 paw	case
60	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	64 paw	nmod:poss
61	hairy	hairy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	64 paw	amod
62	,	,	PUNCT	_	61 hairy	punct
63	hairy	hairy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	64 paw	amod
64	paw	paw	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 spanked	obl
65	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 asked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	Elephant		Elephant's broad aunt		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent aunt=Recipient
2	is	past	aunt's eyes			red property	tree rules
3	spank	past	Elephant's broad aunt	Elephant		with aunt's broad broad hoof	vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with hoof=Instrument
4	ask speech: ask	past	Elephant		Elephant's hairy uncle		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent uncle=Recipient
5	taste	past	melons				vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus
6	spank	past	Elephant's hairy uncle	Elephant		with Elephant's hairy hairy paw	vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with paw=Instrument

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2781/6/8/