Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 174

Then the Head Chief cried and said and sang, ‘Taffy dear, the next time you write a picture-letter, you’d better send a man who can talk our language with it, to explain what it means.

Who acts: Head Chief, you, man, language · What happens: cry, say, sing, write, have, send · To what, where: picture letter, man, language · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (Head Chief, you, man, language), 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	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 cried	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Chief	det
3	Head	Head	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Chief	compound
4	Chief	Chief	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 cried	nsubj
5	cried	cry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 said	cc
7	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cried	conj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 sang	cc
9	sang	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cried	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 dear	punct
11	‘	'	PUNCT	_	13 dear	punct
12	Taffy	Taffy	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 dear	compound
13	dear	dear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 sang	parataxis
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 ’d	punct
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 time	det
16	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 time	amod
17	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 ’d	obl:unmarked
18	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	19 write	nsubj
19	write	write	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 time	acl:relcl
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 letter	det
21	picture	picture	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 letter	compound
22	-	-	PUNCT	_	21 picture	punct
23	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 write	obj
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 write	punct
25	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	26 ’d	nsubj
26	’d	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cried	conj
27	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	26 ’d	xcomp
28	send	send	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 ’d	xcomp
29	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 man	det
30	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 send	obj
31	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	33 talk	nsubj
32	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	33 talk	aux
33	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 man	acl:relcl
34	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	35 language	nmod:poss
35	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 talk	obj
36	with	with	ADP	_	37 it	case
37	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 talk	obl
38	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 explain	punct
39	to	to	PART	_	40 explain	mark
40	explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	28 send	parataxis
41	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	43 means	obj
42	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 means	nsubj
43	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	40 explain	ccomp
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 cried	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	cry speech: express	past	the Head Chief		then		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	say speech: assert	past	the Head Chief not said here				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	sing speech: express	past	the Head Chief not said here				vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	write	present	you	a picture letter			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme
5	have	past	you		time	good property	tree rules
6	send	infinitive	you not said here	a man			vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme
7	talk	can	a man	our language		with language	tree rules
8	explain speech: assert	to-infinitive					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
9	mean	present	language				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic

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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