---
title: When the wise man heard that reply, he thought: “Alas! alas! — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: When the wise man heard that reply, he thought: “Alas! alas! Who acts: wise man, leader. 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 147

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When the wise man heard that reply, he thought: “Alas! alas!

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**Who acts:** wise man, leader · **What happens:** hear, think · **To what, where:** reply

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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: who acts (wise man, leader), 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:pg74064:13:156
# text = When the wise man heard that reply, he thought: “Alas! alas!
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	reply	reply	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Alas	ala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
15	alas	ala	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the wise man | that reply |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer reply=Stimulus |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | leader |  |  |  |  | Alas alas *ccomp* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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