---
title: He said: “Friends, in former times, in such-and-such a place, grew a… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: He said: “Friends, in former times, in such-and-such a place, grew a huge banyan tree. Who acts: oldest. 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 117

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He said: “Friends, in former times, in such-and-such a place, grew a huge banyan tree.

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**Who acts:** oldest · **What happens:** say, grow · **To what, where:** huge banyan tree · **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 (oldest), 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:pg74064:12:122
# text = He said: “Friends, in former times, in such-and-such a place, grew a huge 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	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
12	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	18	det:predet	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	banyan	banyan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	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 | oldest *= old* |  |  |  |  | Friends and former times and such such place *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **grow** *in a quote* | past | oldest *= old* *not said here* | a huge banyan tree |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tree=Theme |

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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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