---
title: There were always a few hundred mothers hunting for their children t… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were always a few hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, and the babies were kept lively. Who acts: few hundred mothers. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 10, sentence 164

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There were always a few hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, and the babies were kept lively.

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**Who acts:** few hundred mothers · **What happens:** be, hunt, keep · **To what, where:** playgrounds, babies

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few hundred mothers), 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:pg236:10:164
# text = There were always a few hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, and the babies were kept lively.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
8	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	playgrounds	playground	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	babies	baby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
21	lively	lively	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a few hundred mothers |  |  | there |  | always *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hunt** | gerund | a few hundred mothers *not said here* |  |  | the playgrounds |  | for heels's children | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for child=Theme through playground=Location |
| 3 | **keep** | past · passive |  | the babies |  |  |  | lively *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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