---
title: The latter asked him: “Why are you lean, dried-up, pale, yellow as e… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The latter asked him: “Why are you lean, dried-up, pale, yellow as ever was yellow, your body strewn with veins?” Who acts: latter, king, body. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 11, sentence 108

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The latter asked him: “Why are you lean, dried-up, pale, yellow as ever was yellow, your body strewn with veins?”

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**Who acts:** latter, king, body · **What happens:** ask, be, dry up · **To what, where:** king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (latter, king, body), 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:pg74064:11:115
# text = The latter asked him: “Why are you lean, dried-up, pale, yellow as ever was yellow, your body strewn with veins?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	latter	latter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	lean	lean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	22	advmod	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	strewn	strewn	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	veins	vein	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the latter |  | king |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | king |  |  |  |  | lean *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **dry up** *in a quote* | participle | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* |  | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* |  | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | past | king *not said here* |  |  |  | ever | yellow *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **be** *in a quote* |  | your body |  |  |  |  | with veins | 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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