The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 13, sentence 129

He came down almost across her back, and if he had been an old mongoose he would have known that then was the time to break her back with one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing return stroke of the cobra.

Who acts: Tikki, time · What happens: come down, know, be, break, stroke · To what, where: back, Tikki, time, cobra · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tikki, time), 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 came	nsubj
2	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	down	down	ADV	_	2 came	advmod
4	almost	almost	ADV	_	7 back	advmod
5	across	across	ADP	_	7 back	case
6	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 back	nmod:poss
7	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 came	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 known	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 known	cc
10	if	if	SCONJ	_	20 known	mark
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 known	nsubj:pass
12	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 known	aux
13	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	20 known	aux:pass
14	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 mongoose	det
15	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 mongoose	amod
16	mongoose	mongoose	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 known	nsubj:pass
17	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 known	nsubj:pass
18	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	20 known	aux
19	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	20 known	aux
20	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 came	parataxis
21	that	that	SCONJ	_	27 break	mark
22	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	25 time	advmod
23	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 time	cop
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 time	det
25	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 break	nsubj
26	to	to	PART	_	27 break	mark
27	break	break	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	20 known	ccomp
28	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	29 back	nmod:poss
29	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 break	obj
30	with	with	ADP	_	32 bite	case
31	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	32 bite	nummod
32	bite	bite	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 break	obl
33	;	;	PUNCT	_	37 afraid	punct
34	but	but	CCONJ	_	37 afraid	cc
35	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 afraid	nsubj
36	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 afraid	cop
37	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 came	conj
38	of	of	ADP	_	43 stroke	case
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 stroke	det
40	terrible	terrible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	43 stroke	amod
41	lashing	lashing	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 return	compound
42	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 stroke	compound
43	stroke	stroke	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 afraid	obl
44	of	of	ADP	_	46 cobra	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 cobra	det
46	cobra	cobra	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 stroke	nmod
47	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 came	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come down	past	Tikki		wife's back		down property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme across back=Initial_Location
2	know a condition, not said to happen	would · past · perfect · passive		Tikki				tree rules
3	is a	past		the time		then		tree rules
4	break	to-infinitive	the time	wife's back			with one bite	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent back=Patient with bite=Instrument
5	is	past	Tikki				of the terrible return stroke of the cobra; afraid property	tree rules
6	stroke			the cobra				nom stroke «act transitive»: of=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.

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