---
title: Still, the instant’s delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, and as she… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Still, the instant’s delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her--and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole. 
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 15, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Still, the instant’s delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her--and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole.

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**Who acts:** delay, Nagaina, mongooses · **What happens:** bring up, plunge, use, live, clench, go down · **To what, where:** Rikki tikki, Nagaina, rat hole, little white teeth, tail, cobra

<!-- .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 (delay, Nagaina, mongooses), 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:pg236:15:70
# text = Still, the instant’s delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her--and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole.
1	Still	still	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’s	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	delay	delay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Rikki	Rikki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	tikki	tikki	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	plunged	plunge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	28	advmod	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	Nag	Nag	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
28	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
33	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
37	clenched	clench	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	parataxis	_	_
38	on	on	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
45	down	down	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
46	with	with	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
50	very	very	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
51	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	mongooses	mongoose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
54	however	however	ADV	RB	_	55	advmod	_	_
55	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
57	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	conj	_	_
58	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	62	nsubj	_	_
59	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	62	aux	_	_
60	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	62	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
62	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	57	ccomp	_	_
63	to	to	PART	TO	_	64	mark	_	_
64	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	62	xcomp	_	_
65	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
66	cobra	cobra	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	64	obj	_	_
67	into	into	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
68	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	69	nmod:poss	_	_
69	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	64	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring up** | past | the instant's delay | Rikki tikki | Nagaina |  | still |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent tikki=Patient |
| 2 | **plunge** | past | Nagaina |  |  | the rat hole |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into hole=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **use** | past | Nagaina |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **live** | to-infinitive | Nagaina *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **clench** | past · passive |  | delay's little white teeth |  | Nagaina's tail |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **go down** | past | delay |  |  |  |  | with Nagaina; down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 7 | **is** | may | mongooses *= mongoose* |  |  |  |  | care *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **follow** | to-infinitive | mongooses *= mongoose* *not said here* | a cobra |  | tail's hole |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent cobra=Theme into hole=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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