---
title: How much more so must it be to human beings, from whom it is as diff… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: How much more so must it be to human beings, from whom it is as difficult to wring a penny as it is to skin a flint!” Who acts: begging. 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 94

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How much more so must it be to human beings, from whom it is as difficult to wring a penny as it is to skin a flint!”

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**Who acts:** begging · **What happens:** be, wring · **To what, where:** human beings, penny

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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 (begging), 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:pg74064:11:101
# text = How much more so must it be to human beings, from whom it is as difficult to wring a penny as it is to skin a flint!”
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	much	much	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	obl	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	expl	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	wring	wring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	csubj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	flint	flint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | infinitive | begging |  |  |  |  | to human beings | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | begging *not said here* |  |  | human beings |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **wring** | to-infinitive |  | a penny |  |  |  | a flint *obj* | vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent penny=Theme flint=Destination |
| 4 | **is** | present | begging |  |  |  |  | as skin | 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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