---
title: Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came to a wolf’s cave at night. Who acts: front, naked brown baby. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 1, with its de
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 1, sentence 85

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Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came to a wolf’s cave at night.

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**Who acts:** front, naked brown baby · **What happens:** hold on, stand, walk, dimple, come · **To what, where:** naked brown baby, front, little atom, cave

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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 (front, naked brown baby), 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:pg236:1:85
# text = Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came to a wolf’s cave at night.
1	Directly	directly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
14	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	just	just	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	dimpled	dimple	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	conj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	atom	atom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	34	advmod	_	_
34	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’s	's	PART	POS	_	37	case	_	_
39	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
40	at	at	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold on** | gerund | front of thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by a low branch | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by branch=Location |
| 2 | **stand** | past |  | a naked brown baby |  | front of thing |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent baby=Theme in front=Destination |
| 3 | **walk** | could | a naked brown baby |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **dimple** | participle |  | a little atom |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | past |  |  |  | a wolf's cave at night | ever |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to cave=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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