---
title: “If I don’t break his back at the first jump,” said Rikki, “he can s… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “If I don’t break his back at the first jump,” said Rikki, “he can still fight. Who acts: 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 82

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“If I don’t break his back at the first jump,” said Rikki, “he can still fight.

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**Who acts:** Rikki, tikki · **What happens:** break, say, fight · **To what, where:** back, first jump · **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 (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:pg236:14:82
# text = “If I don’t break his back at the first jump,” said Rikki, “he can still fight.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
6	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	12	amod	_	_
12	jump	jump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	Rikki	Rikki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	still	still	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** *in a quote* | present · do-support |  | tikki's back |  | the first jump |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer back=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Rikki |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fight** *in a quote* | can | tikki |  |  |  | still |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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