---
title: Little Toomai turned, rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Little Toomai turned, rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his big back against half the stars in heaven, and while he watched he heard, so far away that it sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked through the stillness, the “hoot-toot” of a wild elephant. Who acts: Little Toomai,
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/17/19/)

<!-- 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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/17/) / 19

# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 17, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Little Toomai turned, rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his big back against half the stars in heaven, and while he watched he heard, so far away that it sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked through the stillness, the “hoot-toot” of a wild elephant.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Little Toomai, Toomai, curve · **What happens:** turn, rustle, watch, hear, sound, prick · **To what, where:** fodder, curve, more, noise, wild elephant

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 17. 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, Toomai, curve), 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:pg236:17:19
# text = Little Toomai turned, rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his big back against half the stars in heaven, and while he watched he heard, so far away that it sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked through the stillness, the “hoot-toot” of a wild elephant.
1	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	rustling	rustle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fodder	fodder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	curve	curve	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
18	against	against	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	21	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
33	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
34	away	away	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
38	no	no	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	37	obj	_	_
40	than	than	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	pinhole	pinhole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	_
45	pricked	prick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	acl	_	_
46	through	through	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	stillness	stillness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
51	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	54	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	hoot	hoot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	52	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	toot	toot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	54	punct	_	_
56	of	of	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
57	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
58	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | Little Toomai |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **rustle** | gerund | Little Toomai *not said here* |  |  | the fodder |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in fodder=Location |
| 3 | **watch** | past | Little Toomai *not said here* | the curve of Toomai's big back against half stars in heaven |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent curve=Theme |
| 4 | **watch** | past | Toomai |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **hear** | past | Toomai |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **sound** | past | curve | more |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location more=Theme |
| 7 | **prick** | participle |  | noise *not said here* |  |  |  | through the stillness | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent through stillness=Patient |
| 8 | **toot** *in a quote* |  |  | a wild elephant |  |  |  |  | nom toot «event transitive»: of=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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/17/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/17/20/)
- ↑ back to [The Jungle Book, part 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/17/)