---
title: They were between twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were between twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers, but a shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet leather. Who acts: People, like tail. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 12, sentence 38

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They were between twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers, but a shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet leather.

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**Who acts:** People, like tail · **What happens:** be, have, look, whittle · **To what, where:** hind flippers, tail, wet leather

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (People, like tail), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg236:12:38
# text = They were between twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers, but a shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet leather.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
3	between	between	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	conj	_	_
7	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
8	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
14	hind	hind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	flippers	flipper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
19	shovel	shovel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	like	like	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	whittled	whittle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	advcl	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	leather	leather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | People |  |  |  |  | between twenty feet; long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | People | no hind flippers |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flipper=Patient |
| 3 | **look** | past | a like tail |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **whittle** | past · perfect · passive |  | tail |  | wet leather |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |

<!-- .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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