---
title: “But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the people?” said Nag. Who acts: you, anything, Nag. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 14, sentence 59

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“But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the people?” said Nag.

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**Who acts:** you, anything, Nag · **What happens:** be, gain, kill, say · **To what, where:** people · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, anything, Nag), 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:pg236:14:59
# text = “But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the people?” said Nag.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	ccomp	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	nsubj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	gained	gain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
13	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	killing	kill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	Nag	Nag	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** *in a quote* | present | anything |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **gain** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · passive | anything *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V» |
| 4 | **kill** *in a quote* | gerund | anything *not said here* | the people |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Nag |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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