---
title: Most of these stories were, in their original form, nothing but simp… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Most of these stories were, in their original form, nothing but simple folk-tales, many of them of great antiquity. Who acts: Most. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 249

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Most of these stories were, in their original form, nothing but simple folk-tales, many of them of great antiquity.

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**Who acts:** Most · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** original form

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Most), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:1:267
# text = Most of these stories were, in their original form, nothing but simple folk-tales, many of them of great antiquity.
1	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	original	original	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	10	appos	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	simple	simple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
15	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	appos	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	antiquity	antiquity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Most of this stories |  |  | Stories's original form |  | Stories *= story* *nmod:poss*; nothing  simple folk tales *appos* | tree rules |

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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 grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Project Gutenberg book 74064 (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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