---
title: But as for me, I do not know What made that “rat-a-tat.” — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: But as for me, I do not know What made that “rat-a-tat.” Who acts: I, that. 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 169

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But as for me, I do not know What made that “rat-a-tat.”

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**Who acts:** I, that · **What happens:** not know, make, tat · **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 (I, that), 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:pg74064:10:173
# text = But as for me, I do not know What made that “rat-a-tat.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	4	case	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	2	fixed	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	nsubj	_	_
11	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	nsubj	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	tat	tat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  | as me | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **make** | past |  |  |  |  |  | What *nsubj* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material |
| 3 | **tat** *in a quote* |  | that |  |  |  |  |  | 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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