---
title: Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life,… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver. Who acts: Akela, boy, long black hair, blazing bran
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 3, sentence 121

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver.

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**Who acts:** Akela, boy, long black hair, blazing branch, shadows · **What happens:** not ask, give, stand, toss, make, jump · **To what, where:** grim old wolf, one piteous look, Mowgli, long black hair, shoulders, blazing branch

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Akela, boy, long black hair, blazing branch), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg236:3:121
# text = Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver.
1	Akela	Akela	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	grim	grim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
17	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
19	piteous	piteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Mowgli	Mowgli	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
27	all	all	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
31	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
34	tossing	toss	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	acl	_	_
35	over	over	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	blazing	blazing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	_
45	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	nsubj	_	_
46	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	acl:relcl	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nsubj	_	_
49	jump	jump	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	ccomp	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	quiver	quiver	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	49	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* | past · perfect · passive |  | the grim old wolf |  |  |  | for mercy in Akela's life | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **give** | past | Akela | one piteous look |  | Mowgli |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent look=Theme at mowgli=Asset |
| 3 | **stand** | past | the boy | Akela's long black hair |  |  |  | naked *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **toss** | gerund | Akela's long black hair *not said here* |  |  | Akela's shoulders |  | in the light of the blazing branch | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent over shoulder=Destination |
| 5 | **make** | past | the blazing branch |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **jump** | present | the shadows |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **quiver** | present | the shadows *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **light** |  |  | the blazing branch |  |  |  |  | nom light «phenomenon 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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