---
title: For a minute it seemed as though he were going to draw his sword and… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For a minute it seemed as though he were going to draw his sword and slash his way out through the English men and women in the carriages at the back. Who acts: it, last. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/20/159/)

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 20, sentence 159

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For a minute it seemed as though he were going to draw his sword and slash his way out through the English men and women in the carriages at the back.

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**Who acts:** it, last · **What happens:** seem, go, draw, slash out · **To what, where:** sword, way

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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 (it, last), 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:pg236:20:159
# text = For a minute it seemed as though he were going to draw his sword and slash his way out through the English men and women in the carriages at the back.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	xcomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	slash	slash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	out	out	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
20	through	through	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	carriages	carriage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  | minute |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | last |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **draw** | to-infinitive | last *not said here* | last's sword |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Theme |
| 4 | **slash out** | infinitive | last *not said here* | last's way |  |  |  | through the English men in the carriages at the back and women; out *property* | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |

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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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