---
title: He bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed any. Who acts: tikki. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/14/157/)

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 14, sentence 157

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed any.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tikki · **What happens:** bite off, take, crush, turn over, see, miss · **To what, where:** tops, care, young cobras, litter, any · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tikki), 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:pg236:14:157
# text = He bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed any.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	bit	bite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	tops	top	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
16	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	crush	crush	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	cobras	cobra	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
25	over	over	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	litter	litter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
34	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	missed	miss	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	ccomp	_	_
38	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bite off** | past | tikki | the tops of the eggs |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent top=Patient |
| 2 | **take** | gerund | tikki *not said here* | care |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent care=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **crush** | to-infinitive | tikki *not said here* | the young cobras |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cobra=Patient |
| 4 | **turn over** | past | tikki *not said here* | the litter |  |  | time |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent litter=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive | tikki *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **miss** | past · perfect | tikki | any |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer any=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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