---
title: Seeing, he said this: “Whence, sir, do you come?” — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Seeing, he said this: “Whence, sir, do you come?” Who acts: leader, you. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 106

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Seeing, he said this: “Whence, sir, do you come?”

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**Who acts:** leader, you · **What happens:** see, say, come · **To what, where:** this · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (leader, you), 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:pg74064:14:114
# text = Seeing, he said this: “Whence, sir, do you come?”
1	Seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	Whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund | leader *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | leader | this |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «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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