---
title: They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular spa… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular space of some three or four acres, and in all that space, as Little Toomai could see, the ground had been trampled down as hard as a brick floor. Who acts: tops, trees, Little Toomai. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling,
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 17, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular space of some three or four acres, and in all that space, as Little Toomai could see, the ground had been trampled down as hard as a brick floor.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tops, trees, Little Toomai · **What happens:** be, grow, see, trample down · **To what, where:** part, space, ground

<!-- .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 (tops, trees, Little Toomai), 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:pg236:17:55
# text = They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular space of some three or four acres, and in all that space, as Little Toomai could see, the ground had been trampled down as hard as a brick floor.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	circle	circle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	round	round	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	irregular	irregular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
17	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	conj	_	_
20	acres	acre	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
25	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	38	aux:pass	_	_
38	trampled	trample	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
39	down	down	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	_
40	as	as	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	38	advmod	_	_
42	as	as	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	brick	brick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	compound	_	_
45	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | tops *= top* | part |  | all space |  | of a circle of trees | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | past | trees |  |  |  |  | round a irregular space of some three acres | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | could | Little Toomai |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **trample down** | past · perfect · passive |  | the ground |  |  |  | hard *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.

<!-- /div -->

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