---
title: He said: “Friends, when I was a young monkey, I used to sit on the e… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: He said: “Friends, when I was a young monkey, I used to sit on the earth, extend my neck, and eat the tips of the shoots of this banyan tree. Who acts: Monkey. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/12/114/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The grateful elephant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/) / [Opening, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/12/) / 114

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 12, sentence 114

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He said: “Friends, when I was a young monkey, I used to sit on the earth, extend my neck, and eat the tips of the shoots of this banyan tree.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Monkey · **What happens:** say, be, use, sit, extend, eat · **To what, where:** young monkey, earth, neck, tips · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Monkey), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:12:119
# text = He said: “Friends, when I was a young monkey, I used to sit on the earth, extend my neck, and eat the tips of the shoots of this banyan tree.
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	monkey	monkey	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	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	extend	extend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	tips	tip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	shoots	shoot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	36	det	_	_
35	banyan	banyan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Monkey |  |  |  |  | Friends and a young monkey *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | Monkey | a young monkey |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **use** *in a quote* | past | Monkey |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **sit** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Monkey *not said here* |  |  | the earth |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on earth=Location |
| 5 | **extend** *in a quote* | infinitive | Monkey *not said here* | my neck |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent neck=Theme |
| 6 | **eat** *in a quote* | infinitive | Monkey *not said here* | the tips of the shoots of this banyan tree |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tip=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/12/113/)
- next →: [sentence 115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/12/115/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/12/)