---
title: Let us find out which one of us is the oldest, and to him let us off… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Let us find out which one of us is the oldest, and to him let us offer respectful greetings and the other marks of courtesy.’ Who acts: you, us, one. 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 99

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Let us find out which one of us is the oldest, and to him let us offer respectful greetings and the other marks of courtesy.’

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**Who acts:** you, us, one · **What happens:** let, find out, be, offer, mark · **To what, where:** us, Teacher, respectful greetings, courtesy · **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 (you, us, one), 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:pg74064:12:104
# text = Let us find out which one of us is the oldest, and to him let us offer respectful greetings and the other marks of courtesy.’
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	6	det	_	_
6	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
16	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
17	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	offer	offer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	respectful	respectful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	greetings	greeting	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	marks	mark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	courtesy	courtesy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **find out** | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | which one of us |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive | you *not said here* | us | Teacher |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **offer** | infinitive | us *not said here* | respectful greetings and the other marks of courtesy |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent greeting=Theme |
| 6 | **mark** |  |  | courtesy |  |  |  |  | nom mark «cognition transitive»: of=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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