---
title: The elephant turned, without a sound, took three strides back to the… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The elephant turned, without a sound, took three strides back to the boy in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up to his neck, and almost before Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into the forest. Who acts: elephant. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle 
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 17, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The elephant turned, without a sound, took three strides back to the boy in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up to his neck, and almost before Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into the forest.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** elephant · **What happens:** turn, take back, put down, swing up, settle, slip · **To what, where:** three strides, boy, trunk, Kala, neck, Little

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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 (elephant), 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:pg236:17:30
# text = The elephant turned, without a sound, took three strides back to the boy in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up to his neck, and almost before Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into the forest.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	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	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	without	without	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	strides	stride	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
21	down	down	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	swung	swing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
33	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
34	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
35	Little	Little	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	flat	_	_
37	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	settled	settle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
43	into	into	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | the elephant |  |  |  |  | without a sound | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **take back** | past | the elephant *not said here* | three strides | the boy in the moonlight |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent stride=Theme to boy=Destination |
| 3 | **put down** | infinitive | the elephant *not said here* | boy's trunk |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent trunk=Goal |
| 4 | **swing up** | past | the elephant *not said here* | Kala |  | Kala's neck |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent he=Theme to neck=Trajectory |
| 5 | **settle** | past · perfect · passive |  | Little |  |  |  | almost *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **slip** | past |  |  |  | the forest |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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