---
title: As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price of a bull’s life. Who acts: Mowgli, Bagheera. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 2, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 2, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price of a bull’s life.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mowgli, Bagheera · **What happens:** be, understand, tell, not touch, buy · **To what, where:** things, Mowgli, cattle, Bagheera, Pack · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mowgli, Bagheera), 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:pg236:2:63
# text = As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price of a bull’s life.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
10	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	Bagheera	Bagheera	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
20	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
21	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	bought	buy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
26	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Pack	pack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’s	's	PART	POS	_	34	case	_	_
36	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Mowgli |  |  |  |  | enough, old, soon *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **understand** | to-infinitive | Mowgli *not said here* | things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Bagheera |  | Mowgli |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **touch** *not said to happen* | must | Bagheera | cattle |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme cattle=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **buy** | past · perfect · passive |  | Bagheera |  | the Pack at the price of a bull's life |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: subject=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.

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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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