---
title: _Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: _Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 112

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\_Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good.

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**What happens:** not know, be · **To what, where:** hands · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg74064:13:120
# text = _Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good.
1	_	_	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nmod	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present |  |  |  |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; good *property* | tree rules |

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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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