---
title: He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches. Who acts: head, nuts. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 4, with 
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 4, sentence 108

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches.

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**Who acts:** head, nuts · **What happens:** speak, spatter down, hear · **To what, where:** shower, branches, coughings, air · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (head, nuts), 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:pg236:4:108
# text = He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	shower	shower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	nuts	nut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
12	spattered	spatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
13	down	down	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
22	coughings	coughing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	howlings	howling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	jumpings	jumping	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
28	high	high	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
29	up	up	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
33	among	among	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect | head |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **spatter down** | participle · passive |  | a shower of nuts and twigs |  | the branches |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme through branch=Destination |
| 3 | **hear** | could | nuts *= nut* | coughings and howlings and angry jumpings |  | the air |  | among the thin branches | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer coughing=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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