---
title: Thus, in the course of time, there was an army of animals a league i… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus, in the course of time, there was an army of animals a league in size. Who acts: army. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 10, sentence 126

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Thus, in the course of time, there was an army of animals a league in size.

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**Who acts:** army · **What happens:** be

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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 (army), 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:pg74064:10:130
# text = Thus, in the course of time, there was an army of animals a league in size.
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	league	league	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a army of animals |  |  | there |  | thus *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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