The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 12, sentence 39
Their heads were the most foolish-looking things you ever saw, and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they weren’t grazing, bowing solemnly to each other and waving their front flippers as a fat man waves his arm.
Who acts: heads, you, People, fat man · What happens: look, be, see, balance, not graze, bow · To what, where: looking things, ends, front flippers, arm
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heads, you, People, fat man), 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 | Their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 heads | nmod:poss |
| 2 | heads | head | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 things | nsubj |
| 3 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 things | cop |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 things | det |
| 5 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 6 foolish | advmod |
| 6 | foolish | foolish | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 looking | compound |
| 7 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 6 foolish | punct |
| 8 | looking | look | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 9 things | amod |
| 9 | things | thing | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 10 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 12 saw | nsubj |
| 11 | ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 12 saw | advmod |
| 12 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 things | acl:relcl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 balanced | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 balanced | cc |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 balanced | nsubj |
| 16 | balanced | balance | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 saw | conj |
| 17 | on | on | ADP | _ | 19 ends | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 ends | det |
| 19 | ends | end | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 balanced | obl |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 tails | case |
| 21 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 tails | nmod:poss |
| 22 | tails | tail | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 ends | nmod |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 25 water | case |
| 24 | deep | deep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 water | amod |
| 25 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 balanced | obl |
| 26 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 30 grazing | advmod |
| 27 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 grazing | nsubj |
| 28 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 grazing | aux |
| 29 | n’t | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 30 grazing | advmod |
| 30 | grazing | graze | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 16 balanced | advcl |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 bowing | punct |
| 32 | bowing | bow | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 30 grazing | conj |
| 33 | solemnly | solemnly | ADV | _ | 32 bowing | advmod |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 35 each | case |
| 35 | each | each | DET | ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp | 32 bowing | obl |
| 36 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 each | fixed |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 waving | cc |
| 38 | waving | wave | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 30 grazing | conj |
| 39 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 flippers | nmod:poss |
| 40 | front | front | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 flippers | amod |
| 41 | flippers | flipper | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 waving | obj |
| 42 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 46 waves | mark |
| 43 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 45 man | det |
| 44 | fat | fat | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 man | amod |
| 45 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 waves | nsubj |
| 46 | waves | wave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 38 waving | advcl |
| 47 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 48 arm | nmod:poss |
| 48 | arm | arm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 waves | obj |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 things | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | look | gerund | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | ||||||
| 2 | is a | past | People's heads | the looking things | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | see | past | you | the looking things not said here | ever | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus | |||
| 4 | balance | past | People | on the ends of People's tails | in deep water | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on end=Location | |||
| 5 | not graze | past · progressive | People | vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | bow | gerund | People not said here | to each; solemnly property | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to each=Theme | ||||
| 7 | wave | gerund | People not said here | People's front flippers | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flipper=Patient | ||||
| 8 | wave | present | a fat man | seal's arm | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arm=Patient |
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: «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, Project Gutenberg book 236 (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/pg236/12/39/