---
title: They say too--and it is true--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They say too--and it is true--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth. Who acts: men, reason, that. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/1/68/)

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 1, sentence 68

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They say too--and it is true--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.

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**Who acts:** men, reason, that · **What happens:** say, be, become, lose · **To what, where:** teeth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, reason, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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 {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg236:1:68
# text = They say too--and it is true--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	nsubj	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	eaters	eater	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	become	become	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
15	mangy	mangy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	lose	lose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | reason |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **become** | present | that |  |  |  |  | mangy *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **lose** | present |  | men's teeth |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tooth=Eventuality |

<!-- .note -->
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.

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**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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