---
title: When you water the young trees, pull them up by the roots, every one… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: When you water the young trees, pull them up by the roots, every one; look at the roots; water plentifully the roots that strike deep, but sparingly the roots that do not strike deep; later on we shall have a hard time getting water.” Who acts: you, water, roots, we. A sentence of «The grateful elep
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/13/142/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The grateful elephant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/) / [Opening, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/13/) / 142

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 142

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When you water the young trees, pull them up by the roots, every one; look at the roots; water plentifully the roots that strike deep, but sparingly the roots that do not strike deep; later on we shall have a hard time getting water.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, water, roots, we · **What happens:** water, pull up, look, root, strike, not strike · **To what, where:** monkeys

<!-- .vabout -->
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: who acts (you, water, roots, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:13:151
# text = When you water the young trees, pull them up by the roots, every one; look at the roots; water plentifully the roots that strike deep, but sparingly the roots that do not strike deep; later on we shall have a hard time getting water.”
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	look	look	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	plentifully	plentifully	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	strike	strike	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	sparingly	sparingly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	conj	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
36	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl:relcl	_	_
39	deep	deep	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	45	punct	_	_
41	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	45	advmod	_	_
42	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
43	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
44	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
45	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	_
49	getting	get	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	50	amod	_	_
50	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **water** |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pull up** | infinitive | water | monkeys *= monkey* |  |  |  | by the roots; the young trees *nsubj* | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | at the roots | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at root=Theme |
| 4 | **root** |  | water |  |  |  |  | the roots *conj*; plentifully *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **strike** | present | the roots but the roots |  |  |  |  | deep *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **strike** | present · do-support | the roots |  |  |  |  | deep *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **have** | shall | we |  |  |  | time | late *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **get** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/13/141/)
- next →: [sentence 143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/13/143/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/13/)