---
title: Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creatur… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan. Who acts: Mother, Shere, Mowgli. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 2, sentence 68

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Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan.

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**Who acts:** Mother, Shere, Mowgli · **What happens:** tell, not be, trust, kill · **To what, where:** Mowgli, creature, Shere · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Mother, Shere, Mowgli), 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:pg236:2:68
# text = Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan.
1	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	conj	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	Shere	Shere	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
10	Khan	Khan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	flat	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	trusted	trust	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
26	Shere	Shere	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
27	Khan	Khan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Mother |  | Mowgli |  |  | once *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | past | Shere | a creature |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **trust** | to-infinitive · passive | Mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S» |
| 4 | **kill** | must | Mowgli | Shere |  |  | day |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shere=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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