---
title: “I could not come before, Brother, but I think I heard thee call”--t… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I could not come before, Brother, but I think I heard thee call”--this was to Bagheera. Who acts: I, thee, this. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 6, sentence 117

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“I could not come before, Brother, but I think I heard thee call”--this was to Bagheera.

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**Who acts:** I, thee, this · **What happens:** not come, think, hear, call, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, thee, this), 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:pg236:6:117
# text = “I could not come before, Brother, but I think I heard thee call”--this was to Bagheera.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	before	before	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Brother	Brother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
15	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
16	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Bagheera	Bagheera	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **come** *in a quote* | could | I |  |  |  |  | Brother *vocative*; before *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **call** *in a quote* | infinitive | thee |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | this |  |  |  |  | to Bagheera | tree rules |

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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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