---
title: And the lioness said: “Of a certainty one or another of us is destin… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And the lioness said: “Of a certainty one or another of us is destined to die of hunger. Who acts: lioness. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 15, sentence 137

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And the lioness said: “Of a certainty one or another of us is destined to die of hunger.

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**Who acts:** lioness · **What happens:** say, destine, die · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lioness), 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:pg74064:15:139
# text = And the lioness said: “Of a certainty one or another of us is destined to die of hunger.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	lioness	lioness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	certainty	certainty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	destined	destine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	hunger	hunger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the lioness |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **destine** *in a quote* | present · passive |  |  |  |  |  | of a certainty one  another of us | tree rules |
| 3 | **die** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | of hunger | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of hunger=Causer |

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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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