---
title: Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck lest a… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck lest a swinging bough should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that he were back in the lines again. Who acts: Little, swinging bough, skin. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 17, with its depend
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 17, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck lest a swinging bough should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that he were back in the lines again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Little, swinging bough, skin · **What happens:** lay down, swing, sweep, wish, be · **To what, where:** skin, ground, lines

<!-- .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, swinging bough, skin), 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:pg236:17:41
# text = Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck lest a swinging bough should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that he were back in the lines again.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	Little	Little	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	4	nsubj	_	_
3	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	down	down	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
12	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	swinging	swing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	amod	_	_
15	bough	bough	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	sweep	sweep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	back	back	ADV	RB	_	25	advcl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	lines	line	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	_
33	again	again	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay down** | past | Little | skin |  |  | then | to the great neck; close, down *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Result |
| 2 | **swing** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **sweep** | should | a swinging bough | skin |  | the ground |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent he=Theme to ground=Trajectory |
| 4 | **wish** | past | skin |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **is** | past | skin |  |  | the lines | again | back *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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