---
title: The man was lying on the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The man was lying on the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and he slashed up at me. Who acts: man, I. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 19, sentence 69

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The man was lying on the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and he slashed up at me.

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**Who acts:** man, I · **What happens:** lie, stretch, not tread, slash up · **To what, where:** ground, myself

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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 (man, I), 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:pg236:19:69
# text = The man was lying on the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and he slashed up at me.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	tread	tread	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	slashed	slash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
22	up	up	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past · progressive | the man |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 2 | **stretch** | past | I | myself |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **tread** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on man | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on he=Trajectory |
| 4 | **slash up** | past | man |  |  |  |  | at me | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at i=Patient |

<!-- .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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