---
title: “Wah!” said Little Toomai, “thou art a big elephant,” and he wagged… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Wah!” said Little Toomai, “thou art a big elephant,” and he wagged his fluffy head, quoting his father. Who acts: Little, elephant, father. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 16, sentence 2

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“Wah!” said Little Toomai, “thou art a big elephant,” and he wagged his fluffy head, quoting his father.

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**Who acts:** Little, elephant, father · **What happens:** say, wag, quote · **To what, where:** fluffy head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Little, elephant, father), 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:pg236:16:2
# text = “Wah!” said Little Toomai, “thou art a big elephant,” and he wagged his fluffy head, quoting his father.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Wah	wah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Little	Little	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	5	nsubj	_	_
7	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nsubj	_	_
11	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wagged	wag	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	fluffy	fluffy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	quoting	quote	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Little |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wag** | past | elephant | elephant's fluffy head |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 3 | **quote** *speech: other* | gerund | elephant's father |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «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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