---
title: Last came the screw guns, and Billy the mule carried himself as thou… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Last came the screw guns, and Billy the mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops, and his harness was oiled and polished till it winked. Who acts: Last, Billy mule, mule, harness. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 20, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 20, sentence 149

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Last came the screw guns, and Billy the mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops, and his harness was oiled and polished till it winked.

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**Who acts:** Last, Billy mule, mule, harness · **What happens:** come, carry, command, oil, polish, wink · **To what, where:** screw guns, mule, troops, harness · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Last, Billy mule, mule, harness), 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:pg236:20:149
# text = Last came the screw guns, and Billy the mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops, and his harness was oiled and polished till it winked.
1	Last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	screw	screw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	guns	gun	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	Billy	Billy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
14	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	troops	troops	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	harness	harness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	oiled	oil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	polished	polish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	conj	_	_
28	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	winked	wink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Last | the screw guns |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location gun=Theme |
| 2 | **carry** | past | the Billy mule | mule |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 3 | **command** | past | mule | all troops |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent troops=Eventuality |
| 4 | **oil** | past · passive |  | mule's harness |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: subject=Destination |
| 5 | **polish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **wink** | past | harness |  |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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