---
title: Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, but Kala Nag was behind h… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, but Kala Nag was behind him, and Toomai made a sign with his hand, and the elephant caught him up in his trunk and held him level with Pudmini’s forehead, in front of the great Petersen Sahib. Who acts: Little Toomai, Kala, Toomai, elephant. A sentence of «
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/16/87/)

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 16, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, but Kala Nag was behind him, and Toomai made a sign with his hand, and the elephant caught him up in his trunk and held him level with Pudmini’s forehead, in front of the great Petersen Sahib.

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**Who acts:** Little Toomai, Kala, Toomai, elephant · **What happens:** be, speak, make, catch up, hold · **To what, where:** sign, Toomai, trunk, front · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 Toomai, Kala, Toomai, elephant), 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:pg236:16:87
# text = Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, but Kala Nag was behind him, and Toomai made a sign with his hand, and the elephant caught him up in his trunk and held him level with Pudmini’s forehead, in front of the great Petersen Sahib.
1	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	Kala	Kala	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	Nag	Nag	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	_
37	level	level	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	Pudmini	Pudmini	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	41	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	’s	's	PART	POS	_	39	case	_	_
41	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
47	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
48	Petersen	Petersen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	49	compound	_	_
49	Sahib	Sahib	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Little Toomai |  |  |  |  | frightened *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Little Toomai *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | Kala |  |  |  |  | behind Kala | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | past | Toomai | a sign |  |  |  | with Toomai's hand | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sign=Product |
| 5 | **catch up** | past | the elephant | Toomai |  | Toomai's trunk |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 6 | **hold** | past | the elephant *not said here* | Toomai |  | front of the great Petersen Sahib |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme level=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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