---
title: “Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him th… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance,” Baloo answered very earnestly. Who acts: Baloo, face. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 4, sentence 27

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“Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance,” Baloo answered very earnestly.

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**Who acts:** Baloo, face · **What happens:** bruise, love, come, harm, answer · **To what, where:** Better, head, face, ignorance · **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 (Baloo, face), 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:pg236:4:27
# text = “Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance,” Baloo answered very earnestly.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	bruised	bruise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	love	love	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	harm	harm	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	through	through	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	ignorance	ignorance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
27	Baloo	Baloo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
29	very	very	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	earnestly	earnestly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bruise** *in a quote* | should · passive | Baloo | Better |  | head |  | to foot | tree rules |
| 2 | **love** *in a quote* | present |  | face |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | should | face |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **harm** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | face *not said here* |  |  | ignorance |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Baloo |  |  |  |  | earnestly *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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