---
title: “Well,” said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exac… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well,” said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exactly like a little boy saying a poem, “I don’t quite know whether you’d understand.” Who acts: Two Tails, poem, you. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 19, sentence 181

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Well,” said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exactly like a little boy saying a poem, “I don’t quite know whether you’d understand.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Two Tails, poem, you · **What happens:** say, rub, not know, have, understand · **To what, where:** one hind leg, other, little boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Two Tails, poem, you), 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:pg236:19:181
# text = “Well,” said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exactly like a little boy saying a poem, “I don’t quite know whether you’d understand.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	Tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	rubbing	rub	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
11	hind	hind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	against	against	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
22	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	poem	poem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
30	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
32	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’d	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	ccomp	_	_
35	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Two Tails |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **rub** | gerund | Two Tails *not said here* | one hind leg |  | the other |  | like a little boy | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent leg=Theme against other=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | a poem | a little boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | a poem *= poem* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **understand** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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