---
title: They knew what the business was before them--the terrible charge of… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They knew what the business was before them--the terrible charge of the buffalo herd against which no tiger can hope to stand. Who acts: boulders, tiger. 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 55

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They knew what the business was before them--the terrible charge of the buffalo herd against which no tiger can hope to stand.

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**Who acts:** boulders, tiger · **What happens:** know, be, hope, stand, charge · **To what, where:** terrible charge, buffalo herd

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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 (boulders, tiger), 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:pg236:9:55
# text = They knew what the business was before them--the terrible charge of the buffalo herd against which no tiger can hope to stand.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	obj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	before	before	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	charge	charge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	buffalo	buffalo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
17	against	against	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obl	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	tiger	tiger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	hope	hope	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl:relcl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | boulders *= boulder* | the terrible charge of the buffalo herd |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  | before buffaloes *= buffalo* |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hope** | can | no tiger |  |  |  |  | against the buffalo herd | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **stand** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | no tiger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **charge** |  |  | the buffalo herd |  |  |  |  | nom charge «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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