---
title: For men of old, through carelessness, not knowing what was the matte… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: For men of old, through carelessness, not knowing what was the matter, ate poison, and as a result experienced great suffering.” Who acts: matter. 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 65

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For men of old, through carelessness, not knowing what was the matter, ate poison, and as a result experienced great suffering.”

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**Who acts:** matter · **What happens:** not know, be, eat · **To what, where:** matter, poison · **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 (matter), 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:pg74064:14:70
# text = For men of old, through carelessness, not knowing what was the matter, ate poison, and as a result experienced great suffering.”
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	through	through	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	carelessness	carelessness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	result	result	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
23	experienced	experienced	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	suffering	suffering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the matter |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **eat** | past | the matter *not said here* | poison |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poison=Patient |

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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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