---
title: He was soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped fa… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to the rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard. Who acts: Shere, Akela. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 9, sentence 34

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He was soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to the rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard.

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**Who acts:** Shere, Akela · **What happens:** soothe, drop, whimper, hurry · **To what, where:** buffaloes, rear, rear guard

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Shere, Akela), 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:pg236:9:34
# text = He was soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to the rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	soothing	soothe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	buffaloes	buffalo	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	Akela	Akela	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
14	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	rear	rear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	whimpering	whimper	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
21	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	20	advmod	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	21	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	hurry	hurry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	rear	rear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	guard	guard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **soothe** | past · progressive | Shere | the buffaloes |  |  | now | by voice | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus buffalo=Experiencer |
| 2 | **drop** | past · perfect | Akela |  |  | the rear |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to rear=Trajectory |
| 3 | **whimper** | gerund | Shere *not said here* |  |  |  |  | once *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **hurry** | to-infinitive | Shere *not said here* | the rear guard |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent guard=Agent |

<!-- .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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