---
title: And joining his hands and pressing them to his head in token of reve… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And joining his hands and pressing them to his head in token of reverent salutation, he spoke as follows: “Reverend Sir, it is clear to us that these laymen just now burst asunder the Supreme Refuge and chose instead speculation. Who acts: merchant, laymen. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by E
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 15, sentence 2

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And joining his hands and pressing them to his head in token of reverent salutation, he spoke as follows: “Reverend Sir, it is clear to us that these laymen just now burst asunder the Supreme Refuge and chose instead speculation.

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**Who acts:** merchant, laymen · **What happens:** join, press, speak, follow, be, burst · **To what, where:** hands, Reverend Sir, us, asunder, speculation · **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 (merchant, laymen), 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:pg74064:15:2
# text = And joining his hands and pressing them to his head in token of reverent salutation, he spoke as follows: “Reverend Sir, it is clear to us that these laymen just now burst asunder the Supreme Refuge and chose instead speculation.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	joining	join	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	pressing	press	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	token	token	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	reverent	reverent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	salutation	salutation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	follows	follow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Reverend	Reverend	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	expl	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
32	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	33	det	_	_
33	laymen	layman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	nsubj	_	_
34	just	just	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
35	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	36	advmod	_	_
36	burst	burst	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	acl:relcl	_	_
37	asunder	asunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	xcomp	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	Supreme	Supreme	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	Refuge	Refuge	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
42	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
43	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	speculation	speculation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **join** | gerund | merchant *not said here* | merchant's hands |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 2 | **press** | gerund | merchant *not said here* | hands *= hand* |  |  |  | to merchant's head in token of reverent salutation | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | merchant | Reverend Sir |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **follow** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | merchant *not said here* |  | us |  |  | clear *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **burst** *in a quote* | participle | this laymen *not said here* | asunder |  |  | now |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **choose** *in a quote* | past | this laymen | speculation |  |  |  | the Supreme Refuge *nsubj* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent speculation=Theme |

<!-- .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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