---
title: For there, at the foot of a Vilva tree, under a cocoanut sapling, be… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: For there, at the foot of a Vilva tree, under a cocoanut sapling, beneath a cocoanut leaf, I lay and thought: ‘If the earth collapses, where shall I go?’ Who acts: I, earth. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 10, sentence 155

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For there, at the foot of a Vilva tree, under a cocoanut sapling, beneath a cocoanut leaf, I lay and thought: ‘If the earth collapses, where shall I go?’

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**Who acts:** I, earth · **What happens:** lay, think, collapse, go

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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 (I, 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:pg74064:10:159
# text = For there, at the foot of a Vilva tree, under a cocoanut sapling, beneath a cocoanut leaf, I lay and thought: ‘If the earth collapses, where shall I go?’
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Vilva	Vilva	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	under	under	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	cocoanut	cocoanut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	sapling	sapling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	cocoanut	cocoanut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
27	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	collapses	collapse	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	36	advmod	_	_
34	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **collapse** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | the earth |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | shall | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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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