---
title: Little Toomai’s face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full of… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Little Toomai’s face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full of leaves and drenched with dew, but he tried to salute Petersen Sahib, and cried faintly: “The dance--the elephant dance! Who acts: face, hair, Pudmini. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 18, wit
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 18, sentence 12

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Little Toomai’s face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full of leaves and drenched with dew, but he tried to salute Petersen Sahib, and cried faintly: “The dance--the elephant dance!

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**Who acts:** face, hair, Pudmini · **What happens:** be, pinch, drench, try, salute, cry · **To what, where:** Petersen, dance

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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 (face, hair, Pudmini), 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:pg236:18:12
# text = Little Toomai’s face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full of leaves and drenched with dew, but he tried to salute Petersen Sahib, and cried faintly: “The dance--the elephant dance!
1	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	Toomai	Toomai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	pinched	pinch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	drenched	drench	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	dew	dew	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	salute	salute	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	Petersen	Petersen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	Sahib	Sahib	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
32	faintly	faintly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
34	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Little Toomai's face |  |  |  |  | gray *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pinch** | participle | Little Toomai's face *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | Toomai's hair |  |  |  |  | of leaves; full *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **drench** | participle | Toomai's hair *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with dew | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with dew=Theme |
| 5 | **try** | past | Pudmini |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **salute** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Pudmini *not said here* | Petersen |  |  |  |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent petersen=Topic |
| 7 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Pudmini *not said here* | the dance and the elephant dance |  |  |  | faintly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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