---
title: But I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to teach him better manners.” Who acts: I. 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 87

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But I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to teach him better manners.”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** catch, swing, teach · **To what, where:** Tabaqui, palm tree, better manners

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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 (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:pg236:2:87
# text = But I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to teach him better manners.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	Tabaqui	Tabaqui	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	swung	swing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
12	against	against	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	amod	_	_
21	manners	manners	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | I | Tabaqui |  |  |  | by the tail | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tabaqui=Theme |
| 2 | **swing** | past | I *not said here* | Tabaqui |  | a palm tree |  | twice *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent he=Theme against tree=Location |
| 3 | **teach** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | better manners | Tabaqui |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient manners=Topic |

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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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