---
title: Brahman, you don’t know what you are talking about When you blame us… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Brahman, you don’t know what you are talking about When you blame us like this; For how, unless we see the roots, Can we know whether the tree stands firm? Who acts: Brahman, you, we, tree. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 37

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Brahman, you don’t know what you are talking about When you blame us like this; For how, unless we see the roots, Can we know whether the tree stands firm?

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**Who acts:** Brahman, you, we, tree · **What happens:** not know, talk, blame, see, know, stand · **To what, where:** us, roots · **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 (Brahman, you, we, tree), 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:pg74064:14:38
# text = Brahman, you don’t know what you are talking about When you blame us like this; For how, unless we see the roots, Can we know whether the tree stands firm?
1	Brahman	brahman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	obl	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
11	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	blame	blame	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	For	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
31	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	stands	stand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	ccomp	_	_
35	firm	firm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | Brahman |  |  |  |  | you *nsubj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **talk** | present · progressive | you |  |  |  |  | what *obl* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **blame** | present | you | us |  |  |  | like this | vn judgment-33.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |
| 4 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | we | the roots |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer root=Stimulus |
| 5 | **know** | can | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **stand** | present | the tree |  |  |  |  | firm *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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