---
title: Before I’d lie down, not to speak of sitting down, and let a man fir… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before I’d lie down, not to speak of sitting down, and let a man fire across me, my heels and his head would have something to say to each other. Who acts: I, head. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 19, sentence 113

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before I’d lie down, not to speak of sitting down, and let a man fire across me, my heels and his head would have something to say to each other.

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**Who acts:** I, head · **What happens:** have, lie down, not speak, sit down, let, say · **To what, where:** man fire, something, each · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, head), 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:pg236:19:113
# text = Before I’d lie down, not to speak of sitting down, and let a man fire across me, my heels and his head would have something to say to each other.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’d	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	speak	speak	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	advcl	_	_
12	down	down	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	across	across	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
29	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	28	obj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	acl	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	31	obl	_	_
34	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie down** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sit down** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **let** | infinitive | I *not said here* | a man fire |  |  |  | across me; my heels *obl* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Theme |
| 6 | **have** | would | camp's head | something |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Patient |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | camp's head *not said here* | something *not said here* | each |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient |

<!-- .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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