---
title: The hawk, unable to check his speed, struck his breast against that… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The hawk, unable to check his speed, struck his breast against that very clod. Who acts: hawk. 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 25

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The hawk, unable to check his speed, struck his breast against that very clod.

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**Who acts:** hawk · **What happens:** check, strike · **To what, where:** speed, breast

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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 (hawk), 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:pg74064:13:26
# text = The hawk, unable to check his speed, struck his breast against that very clod.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	check	check	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	speed	speed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	breast	breast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	against	against	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	clod	clod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **check** | to-infinitive | the hawk *not said here* | hawk's speed |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent speed=Theme |
| 2 | **strike** | past | the hawk | hawk's breast |  |  |  | against that clod | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent breast=Instrument against clod=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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