---
title: “I’ve followed the poltoos [the halibut] for twenty years, and I can… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I’ve followed the poltoos [the halibut] for twenty years, and I can’t say I’ve found it yet. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 11, sentence 98

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“I’ve followed the poltoos \[the halibut\] for twenty years, and I can’t say I’ve found it yet.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** follow, not say, have, find · **To what, where:** I, Island · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg236:11:98
# text = “I’ve followed the poltoos [the halibut] for twenty years, and I can’t say I’ve found it yet.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’ve	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	poltoos	poltoo	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	halibut	halibut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	9	punct	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’ve	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
22	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | I |  |  | year |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP.attribute»: subject=Theme poltoo=Attribute |
| 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **find** *in a quote* | past |  | Island |  |  | yet |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

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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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