---
title: “Very well,” said the monkeys, and went about watering the saplings,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “Very well,” said the monkeys, and went about watering the saplings, some of them pulling the saplings up by the roots and others planting them again. Who acts: monkeys, some, roots. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 29

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“Very well,” said the monkeys, and went about watering the saplings, some of them pulling the saplings up by the roots and others planting them again.

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**Who acts:** monkeys, some, roots · **What happens:** say, go, water, pull up, plant · **To what, where:** 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, some, 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:pg74064:14:30
# text = “Very well,” said the monkeys, and went about watering the saplings, some of them pulling the saplings up by the roots and others planting them again.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	watering	water	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	saplings	sapling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	_
20	pulling	pull	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	saplings	sapling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	conj	_	_
29	planting	plant	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	acl	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	again	again	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the monkeys |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **go** | past | the monkeys *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **water** | gerund | the monkeys *not said here* | the saplings |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent sapling=Destination |
| 4 | **pull up** | gerund | some of saplings | the saplings |  |  |  | by the roots and others | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sapling=Theme |
| 5 | **plant** | gerund | the roots and others *not said here* | saplings *= sapling* |  |  | again |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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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