---
title: Now a certain other king summoned his gardener and asked: “Can you s… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Now a certain other king summoned his gardener and asked: “Can you spoil the flavor of my rival’s mango fruit and make it bitter?” Who acts: certain other king, you. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 10, sentence 67

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Now a certain other king summoned his gardener and asked: “Can you spoil the flavor of my rival’s mango fruit and make it bitter?”

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**Who acts:** certain other king, you · **What happens:** summon, ask, spoil, make, flavor · **To what, where:** gardener, flavor, mango fruit · **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 (certain other king, you), 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:pg74064:10:69
# text = Now a certain other king summoned his gardener and asked: “Can you spoil the flavor of my rival’s mango fruit and make it bitter?”
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	summoned	summon	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	gardener	gardener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	spoil	spoil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	flavor	flavor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	rival	rival	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	mango	mango	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **summon** | past | a certain other king | king's gardener |  |  | now |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent gardener=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a certain other king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **spoil** *in a quote* | can | you | the flavor of my rival's mango fruit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | flavor |  |  |  | bitter *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 5 | **flavor** *in a quote* |  |  | my rival's mango fruit |  |  |  |  | nom flavor «state transitive»: of=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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