---
title: One day, returning with food, he lay down under a cocoanut leaf and… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, returning with food, he lay down under a cocoanut leaf and thought: “If this earth should collapse, what would ever become of me?” Who acts: One day, foot, earth. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 10, sentence 111

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One day, returning with food, he lay down under a cocoanut leaf and thought: “If this earth should collapse, what would ever become of me?”

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**Who acts:** One day, foot, earth · **What happens:** return, lie down, think, collapse, become · **To what, where:** cocoanut leaf · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (One day, foot, earth), 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:pg74064:10:115
# text = One day, returning with food, he lay down under a cocoanut leaf and thought: “If this earth should collapse, what would ever become of me?”
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	returning	return	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	under	under	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	cocoanut	cocoanut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	collapse	collapse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	28	advmod	_	_
28	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | gerund | One day *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with food | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lie down** | past | foot |  |  | a cocoanut leaf | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under leaf=Location |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | foot *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **collapse** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | should | this earth |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **become** *in a quote* | would |  |  |  |  | ever | of foot; what *nsubj* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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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