---
title: ‘I’ll water them plentifully or sparingly according as the roots are… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I’ll water them plentifully or sparingly according as the roots are large or small,’ thought he. Who acts: I, roots. 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 13

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‘I’ll water them plentifully or sparingly according as the roots are large or small,’ thought he.

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**Who acts:** I, roots · **What happens:** 'll, accord, be, think · **To what, where:** water, gardener · **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 (I, roots), 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:pg74064:14:14
# text = ‘I’ll water them plentifully or sparingly according as the roots are large or small,’ thought he.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’ll	'll	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
4	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	plentifully	plentifully	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	sparingly	sparingly	ADV	RB	_	6	conj	_	_
9	according	accord	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
19	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **'ll** | present | I | water  saplings |  |  |  | plentifully *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **accord** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | the roots |  |  |  |  | large *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | the roots *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | gardener |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent he=Attribute clause=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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