---
title: Since the elephants bothered him, he said: “The elephants annoy me;… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Since the elephants bothered him, he said: “The elephants annoy me; drive them away.” Who acts: elephants, Sir. 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 3

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Since the elephants bothered him, he said: “The elephants annoy me; drive them away.”

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**Who acts:** elephants, Sir · **What happens:** bother, say, annoy, drive away · **To what, where:** Sir, elephants · **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 (elephants, Sir), 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:pg74064:10:3
# text = Since the elephants bothered him, he said: “The elephants annoy me; drive them away.”
1	Since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	bothered	bother	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	annoy	annoy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	away	away	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bother** | past | the elephants | Sir |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Sir |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **annoy** *in a quote* | infinitive | the elephants | Sir |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer |
| 4 | **drive away** *in a quote* | infinitive | the elephants *not said here* | elephants *= elephant* |  |  |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme they=Trajectory |

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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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