---
title: But it was hard work, and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was hard work, and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolves lolled out their tongues, or came forward and tugged as he ordered them. Who acts: skin, Mowgli, wolves. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 9, with its dependency tree a
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/9/77/)

<!-- 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 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/9/) / 77

# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 9, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it was hard work, and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolves lolled out their tongues, or came forward and tugged as he ordered them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** skin, Mowgli, wolves · **What happens:** be, slash, grunt, loll out, come forward, tug · **To what, where:** hard work, tore, tongues, wolves

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (skin, Mowgli, wolves), 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:pg236:9:77
# text = But it was hard work, and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolves lolled out their tongues, or came forward and tugged as he ordered them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	Mowgli	Mowgli	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	slashed	slash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	tore	tore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	grunted	grunt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	lolled	loll	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	tongues	tongue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
28	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	tugged	tug	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	conj	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
34	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | skin | hard work |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **slash** | past | Mowgli | tore |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tore=Patient |
| 3 | **grunt** | participle | Mowgli *not said here* |  |  |  | hour |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **loll out** | participle | the wolves | wolves's tongues |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tongue=Theme |
| 5 | **come forward** | past | Mowgli *not said here* |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **tug** | participle | Mowgli *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **order** | past | Mowgli |  | wolves *= wolf* |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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 76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/9/76/)
- next →: [sentence 78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/9/78/)
- ↑ back to [The Jungle Book, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/9/)