---
title: It was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might op… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike at him. Who acts: hole, Rikki tikki. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/15/71/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Jungle Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/) / [The Jungle Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/15/) / 71

# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 15, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike at him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hole, Rikki tikki · **What happens:** be, not know, open out, give, turn, strike · **To what, where:** hole, Nagaina room · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (hole, Rikki 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:pg236:15:71
# text = It was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike at him.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	Rikki	Rikki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	tikki	tikki	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
21	Nagaina	Nagaina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | hole |  |  | the hole |  | dark *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past | Rikki tikki |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **open out** | might | hole |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **give** | infinitive | hole *not said here* | Nagaina room |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent room=Theme |
| 5 | **turn** | to-infinitive | hole *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **strike** | infinitive | hole *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at tikki | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at he=Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/15/70/)
- next →: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/15/72/)
- ↑ back to [The Jungle Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/15/)