---
title: The monkeys did as they were told and watered the saplings. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The monkeys did as they were told and watered the saplings. Who acts: monkeys. 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 25

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The monkeys did as they were told and watered the saplings.

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**Who acts:** monkeys · **What happens:** do, tell, water · **To what, where:** monkeys, saplings · **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 (monkeys), 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:pg74064:14:26
# text = The monkeys did as they were told and watered the saplings.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	watered	water	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	saplings	sapling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the monkeys |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | monkeys *= monkey* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **water** | past |  | the saplings |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent sapling=Destination |

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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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