---
title: “Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to sit on the ground and eat t… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to sit on the ground and eat the little tips of the shoots of this banyan tree. Who acts: monks, Sirs. 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 81

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“Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to sit on the ground and eat the little tips of the shoots of this banyan tree.

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**Who acts:** monks, Sirs · **What happens:** be, use, sit, eat · **To what, where:** youngster, ground, little tips

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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:pg74064:12:85
# text = “Sirs, when I was a youngster, I used to sit on the ground and eat the little tips of the shoots of this banyan tree.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sirs	sir	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	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	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	tips	tip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	shoots	shoot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
27	banyan	banyan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	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 elephant *= monk* | a youngster |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** *in a quote* | past | Sirs and a youngster |  |  |  |  | I *nsubj* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **sit** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Sirs and a youngster *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 4 | **eat** *in a quote* | present | Sirs and a youngster *not said here* | the little tips of the shoots of this banyan tree |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tip=Patient |

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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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