--- title: The house was as still as still, but he thought he could just catch… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics description: The house was as still as still, but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch-scratch in the world--a noise as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane--the dry scratch of a snake’s scales on brick-work. Who acts: house, tikki, wasp. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipl --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/14/51/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Jungle Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/) / [The Jungle Book, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/14/) / 51 # The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 14, sentence 51 The house was as still as still, but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch-scratch in the world--a noise as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane--the dry scratch of a snake’s scales on brick-work. **Who acts:** house, tikki, wasp · **What happens:** be, think, catch, walk, scratch · **To what, where:** faintest scratch scratch, world, window pane, scales · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (house, tikki, wasp), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg236:14:51 # text = The house was as still as still, but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch-scratch in the world--a noise as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane--the dry scratch of a snake’s scales on brick-work. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 4 as as ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ _ 5 still still ADV RB _ 11 advmod _ _ 6 as as ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 still still ADV RB _ 5 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 9 but but CCONJ CC _ 11 cc _ _ 10 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 11 nsubj _ _ 11 thought think VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 12 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 nsubj _ _ 13 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 15 aux _ _ 14 just just ADV RB _ 15 advmod _ _ 15 catch catch VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 11 ccomp _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 17 faintest faint ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 20 amod _ _ 18 scratch scratch NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 19 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 18 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 20 scratch scratch NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obj _ _ 21 in in ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 world world NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 24 -- -- PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 25 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 noise noise NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obl _ _ 27 as as ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 28 faint faint ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 obl _ _ 29 as as ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 30 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 26 nmod _ _ 31 of of ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 wasp wasp NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 nmod _ _ 34 walking walk VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 33 acl _ _ 35 on on ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 36 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 37 window window NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 38 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 37 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 39 pane pane NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 40 -- -- PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 42 dry dry ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 43 amod _ _ 43 scratch scratch NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 appos _ _ 44 of of ADP IN _ 48 case _ _ 45 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 46 snake snake NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 47 ’s 's PART POS _ 46 case _ _ 48 scales scale NOUN NNS Number=Plur 43 nmod _ _ 49 on on ADP IN _ 52 case _ _ 50 brick brick NOUN NN Number=Sing 52 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 51 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 50 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 52 work work NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 53 . . PUNCT . _ 11 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | the house | | | | | still *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | tikki | | | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 3 | **catch** | could | tikki | the faintest scratch scratch | | the world | | a noise as that *obl* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scratch=Theme | | 4 | **walk** | gerund | a wasp *not said here* | | | a window pane | | | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on pane=Trajectory | | 5 | **scratch** | | | a snake's scales on brick work | | | | | nom scratch «state transitive»: of=patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/14/50/) - next →: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/14/52/) - ↑ back to [The Jungle Book, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/14/)