---
title: There a certain grey-haired carpenter was planing a tree. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: There a certain grey-haired carpenter was planing a tree. Who acts: certain haired carpenter. 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 60

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There a certain grey-haired carpenter was planing a tree.

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**Who acts:** certain haired carpenter · **What happens:** plan · **To what, where:** tree

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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 (certain haired carpenter), 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:pg74064:13:64
# text = There a certain grey-haired carpenter was planing a tree.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
3	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
4	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	haired	haired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	carpenter	carpenter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	planing	plan	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plan** | past · progressive | a certain haired carpenter | a tree |  | there |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Topic |

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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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