---
title: Billy the Mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old campai… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Billy the Mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old campaigner, as the troop-horse’s head came nuzzling into my breast, and I gave him biscuits, while Vixen, who is a most conceited little dog, told him fibs about the scores of horses that she and I kept. Who acts: Billy, head, I, Vixen. A
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 20, sentence 136

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Billy the Mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old campaigner, as the troop-horse’s head came nuzzling into my breast, and I gave him biscuits, while Vixen, who is a most conceited little dog, told him fibs about the scores of horses that she and I kept.

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**Who acts:** Billy, head, I, Vixen, old campaigner · **What happens:** stump off, swagger, come, nuzzle, give, be · **To what, where:** breast, biscuits, mule, conceited little dog, fibs, horses · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Billy, head, I, Vixen), 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:pg236:20:136
# text = Billy the Mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old campaigner, as the troop-horse’s head came nuzzling into my breast, and I gave him biscuits, while Vixen, who is a most conceited little dog, told him fibs about the scores of horses that she and I kept.
1	Billy	Billy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stumped	stump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	swaggering	swagger	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	amod	_	_
9	limp	limp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	campaigner	campaigner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	troop	troop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	nuzzling	nuzzle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	iobj	_	_
32	biscuits	biscuit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
35	Vixen	Vixen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
37	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj	_	_
38	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
40	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	41	advmod	_	_
41	conceited	conceited	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
42	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
45	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
46	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	iobj	_	_
47	fibs	fib	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	iobj	_	_
48	about	about	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	scores	score	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nmod	_	_
51	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nmod	_	_
53	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	57	obj	_	_
54	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	nsubj	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
56	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	54	conj	_	_
57	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stump off** | past | Billy |  |  |  |  | with the swaggering limp of a old campaigner | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **swagger** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | past | the troop horse's head |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **nuzzle** | gerund | the troop horse's head *not said here* |  |  | my breast |  |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **give** | past | I | biscuits | mule |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient biscuit=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | present | Vixen | a conceited little dog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | I *not said here* |  | fibs about the scores of horses |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient fib=Topic |
| 8 | **keep** | past | Vixen | horses |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 9 | **limp** |  | a old campaigner |  |  |  |  |  | nom limp «act intransitive»: of=agent |
| 10 | **score** |  |  | horses |  |  |  |  | nom score «cognition transitive»: of=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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