---
title: “But what was the meaning of it all?” said Mowgli, who did not know… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “But what was the meaning of it all?” said Mowgli, who did not know anything of a python’s powers of fascination. Who acts: meaning, Mowgli. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/7/80/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Jungle Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/) / [The Jungle Book, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/7/) / 80

# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 7, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“But what was the meaning of it all?” said Mowgli, who did not know anything of a python’s powers of fascination.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** meaning, Mowgli · **What happens:** be, say, not know · **To what, where:** anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (meaning, Mowgli), 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:pg236:7:80
# text = “But what was the meaning of it all?” said Mowgli, who did not know anything of a python’s powers of fascination.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj:outer	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
9	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	Mowgli	Mowgli	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
16	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
19	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	18	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	python	python	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	powers	power	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	fascination	fascination	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | meaning |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | Mowgli | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/7/79/)
- next →: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/7/81/)
- ↑ back to [The Jungle Book, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/7/)