---
title: Nag was asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering wh… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Nag was asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the best place for a good hold. Who acts: Nag, Rikki tikki. 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 81

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Nag was asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the best place for a good hold.

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**Who acts:** Nag, Rikki tikki · **What happens:** be, look, wonder · **To what, where:** best place · **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 (Nag, Rikki tikki), 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:pg236:14:81
# text = Nag was asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the best place for a good hold.
1	Nag	nag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	Rikki	Rikki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	tikki	tikki	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	parataxis	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
21	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Nag |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | past | Rikki tikki |  |  |  |  | at tikki's big back | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at back=Theme |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | would |  | the best place |  |  |  | for a good hold | tree rules |

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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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