---
title: Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-be… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bed with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard as he could put foot to the ground. Who acts: Rikki tikki, tikki. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 15, with its dependen
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 15, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bed with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard as he could put foot to the ground.

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**Who acts:** Rikki tikki, tikki · **What happens:** smash, tumble, scuttle, put · **To what, where:** two eggs, melon bed, veranda, foot

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 15. 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, 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:pg236:15:2
# text = Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bed with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard as he could put foot to the ground.
1	Rikki	Rikki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	tikki	tikki	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	smashed	smash	VERB	VBD	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	tumbled	tumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	backward	backward	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	melon	melon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	amod	_	_
19	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	scuttled	scuttle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	veranda	veranda	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	as	as	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
35	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smash** | past | Rikki tikki | two eggs |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Theme |
| 2 | **tumble** | past | Rikki tikki *not said here* |  |  | the melon bed |  | with the third egg in tikki's mouth; backward *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme down bed=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **scuttle** | participle | Rikki tikki *not said here* |  |  | the veranda |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to veranda=Destination |
| 4 | **put** | could | tikki | foot |  |  |  | to the ground; hard *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent foot=Goal |

<!-- .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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