---
title: But he would have been the last person in the world to call these bi… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But he would have been the last person in the world to call these bites, for he knew what real biting meant. Who acts: Mowgli, real biting. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 7, 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/pg236/7/160/)

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 7, sentence 160

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But he would have been the last person in the world to call these bites, for he knew what real biting meant.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mowgli, real biting · **What happens:** be, call, know, mean · **To what, where:** last person, world, bites · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mowgli, real biting), 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:pg236:7:160
# text = But he would have been the last person in the world to call these bites, for he knew what real biting meant.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
14	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	bites	bite	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	obj	_	_
21	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	biting	biting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | would · perfect | Mowgli | the last person |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | to-infinitive |  | this bites |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent bite=Recipient |
| 3 | **know** | past | Mowgli |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **mean** | past | real biting |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=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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