---
title: The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain on the unseen… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain on the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise began, not very loud at first, and Little Toomai could not tell what it was. Who acts: dull booming noise, Little Toomai, noise. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, pa
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 17, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain on the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise began, not very loud at first, and Little Toomai could not tell what it was.

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**Who acts:** dull booming noise, Little Toomai, noise · **What happens:** spatter down, begin, not tell, be · **To what, where:** dew, unseen backs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (dull booming noise, Little Toomai, noise), 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:pg236:17:78
# text = The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain on the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise began, not very loud at first, and Little Toomai could not tell what it was.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dew	dew	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	above	above	ADP	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	spattered	spatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	unseen	unseen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	booming	booming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	loud	loud	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
30	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	parataxis	_	_
35	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	ccomp	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spatter down** | participle · passive |  | the dew from the trees |  | the unseen backs |  | like rain | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on back=Destination |
| 2 | **begin** | past | a dull booming noise |  |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | Little Toomai |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | noise |  |  |  |  |  | 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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