---
title: He said: “Friends, when I was a young elephant, I used to go with th… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: He said: “Friends, when I was a young elephant, I used to go with this banyan sapling between my thighs. Who acts: Elephant. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 12, sentence 110

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He said: “Friends, when I was a young elephant, I used to go with this banyan sapling between my thighs.

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**Who acts:** Elephant · **What happens:** say, be, use, go · **To what, where:** young elephant · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Elephant), 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:pg74064:12:115
# text = He said: “Friends, when I was a young elephant, I used to go with this banyan sapling between my thighs.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
20	banyan	banyan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	sapling	sapling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	between	between	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	thighs	thigh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Elephant |  |  |  |  | Friends and a young elephant *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | Elephant | a young elephant |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **use** *in a quote* | past | Elephant |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **go** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Elephant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with this banyan sapling between my thighs | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with sapling=Beneficiary |

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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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- ↑ back to [Opening, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/12/)