---
title: “Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to walk over this banyan tree,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to walk over this banyan tree, keeping it between my thighs; the little tips of the shoots would just touch my belly. Who acts: monks, Sirs. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 12, sentence 78

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“Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to walk over this banyan tree, keeping it between my thighs; the little tips of the shoots would just touch my belly.

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**Who acts:** monks, Sirs · **What happens:** be, use, walk, keep, touch · **To what, where:** youngster, banyan tree, tree, thighs, belly

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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 (monks, Sirs), 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:pg74064:12:82
# text = “Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to walk over this banyan tree, keeping it between my thighs; the little tips of the shoots would just touch my belly.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sirs	sir	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	youngster	youngster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	over	over	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
16	banyan	banyan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	between	between	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	thighs	thigh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	tips	tip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	shoots	shoot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	just	just	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
34	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	belly	belly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | monks and the partridge and the monkey *= monk* | a youngster |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** *in a quote* | past | monks and the partridge and the monkey *= monk* | a youngster *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent youngster=Theme clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **walk** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | monks and the partridge and the monkey *= monk* *not said here* |  |  | this banyan tree |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over tree=Trajectory |
| 4 | **keep** *in a quote* | gerund | monks and the partridge and the monkey *= monk* *not said here* | tree |  | my thighs |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme between thigh=Location |
| 5 | **touch** *in a quote* | would | Sirs and the little tips of the shoots | my belly |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme belly=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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