---
title: Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good, Does a good u… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good, Does a good undertaking turn out happily. 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 151

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Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good, Does a good undertaking turn out happily.

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**What happens:** not know, be, turn out · **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:pg74064:13:160
# text = Never, in the hands of one who knows not what is good, Does a good undertaking turn out happily.
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	0	root	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	Does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	nsubj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	undertaking	undertaking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	turn	turn	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## 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 |
| 3 | **turn out** | present |  |  |  |  |  | happily *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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