---
title: Thus I have known this tree from the time it was a sapling.” — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus I have known this tree from the time it was a sapling.” Who acts: I, tree. 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 112

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Thus I have known this tree from the time it was a sapling.”

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**Who acts:** I, tree · **What happens:** know, be · **To what, where:** tree, sapling

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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 (I, tree), 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:pg74064:12:117
# text = Thus I have known this tree from the time it was a sapling.”
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sapling	sapling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present · perfect | I | this tree |  |  | time | thus *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer tree=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | past | tree | a sapling |  |  |  |  | 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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