---
title: That happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was d… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: That happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed awhile before he could find a way up the stones. Who acts: That, snake. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/6/53/)

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 6, sentence 53

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That happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed awhile before he could find a way up the stones.

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**Who acts:** That, snake · **What happens:** happen, ruin, delay, find · **To what, where:** big snake, way

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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 (That, snake), 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:pg236:6:53
# text = That happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed awhile before he could find a way up the stones.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	ruined	ruin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	delayed	delay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
17	awhile	awhile	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	before	before	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	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | That |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ruin** | to-infinitive · passive | That *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of any | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP» |
| 3 | **delay** | past · passive |  | the big snake |  |  |  | awhile *property* | vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V»: subject=Source |
| 4 | **find** | could | snake | a way |  |  |  | up the stones | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic |

<!-- .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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