---
title: The boy could climb almost as well as he could swim, and swim almost… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The boy could climb almost as well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 4, sentence 10

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The boy could climb almost as well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** climb, swim, run

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg236:4:10
# text = The boy could climb almost as well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	climb	climb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	4	advmod	_	_
7	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	fixed	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	swim	swim	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	14	advmod	_	_
17	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	fixed	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **climb** | could | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **swim** | could | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **swim** | present | the boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **run** | could | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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