---
title: Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching and slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed hen’s. Who acts: camel, big soft feet, neck. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/18/103/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Jungle Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/) / [The Jungle Book, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/18/) / 103

# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 18, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching and slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed hen’s.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** camel, big soft feet, neck · **What happens:** be, squelch, slip, bob, fro, stray

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (camel, big soft feet, neck), 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:pg236:18:103
# text = Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching and slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed hen’s.
1	Behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	camel	camel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
11	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	parataxis	_	_
14	squelching	squelch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	slipping	slip	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	conj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	bobbing	bob	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
28	like	like	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	strayed	stray	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	amod	_	_
31	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a camel |  |  | there |  | behind the mule | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind mule=Location |
| 2 | **squelch** | gerund | camel's big soft feet *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **slip** | gerund | camel's big soft feet *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the mud | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in mud=Attribute |
| 4 | **bob** | gerund | camel's neck |  |  |  |  |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **fro** | infinitive | camel's neck *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a strayed hen | tree rules |
| 6 | **stray** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/18/102/)
- next →: [sentence 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/18/104/)
- ↑ back to [The Jungle Book, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/18/)