---
title: Sometimes a tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave wash… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes a tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along the sides of a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper vines would scrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak where his shoulder touched it. Who acts: tuft, cluster, bamboo, shoulder. A sentence of «The Jungle Book
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 17, sentence 32

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Sometimes a tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along the sides of a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper vines would scrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak where his shoulder touched it.

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**Who acts:** tuft, cluster, bamboo, shoulder · **What happens:** wash, scrape, creak, touch · **To what, where:** high grass, bamboo

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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 (tuft, cluster, bamboo, shoulder), 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:pg236:17:32
# text = Sometimes a tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along the sides of a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper vines would scrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak where his shoulder touched it.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	14	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	tuft	tuft	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	washed	wash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	along	along	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	wave	wave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
14	washes	wash	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	along	along	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
23	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	32	advmod	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	cluster	cluster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	pepper	pepper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	vines	vine	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	scrape	scrape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
33	along	along	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
37	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	bamboo	bamboo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
40	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	creak	creak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	conj	_	_
42	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	45	advmod	_	_
43	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
45	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	advcl	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wash** | participle |  | high grass *not said here* |  |  |  | along tuft's sides; as a wave | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wash** | present | a tuft of high grass |  |  |  |  | along the sides of a ship; sometimes *property* | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **scrape** | would | a cluster of pepper vines |  |  |  |  | along tuft's back; sometimes *property* | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **creak** | would | a bamboo |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **touch** | past | tuft's shoulder | bamboo |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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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