---
title: They traveled until sundown, and then unharnessed the carts, drew th… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: They traveled until sundown, and then unharnessed the carts, drew them up in a contracted circle, and tied the oxen to the wheels. Who acts: men. 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 65

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They traveled until sundown, and then unharnessed the carts, drew them up in a contracted circle, and tied the oxen to the wheels.

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** travel, unharness, draw up, contract, tie · **To what, where:** carts, men, contracted circle, oxen

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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 (men), 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:pg74064:15:65
# text = They traveled until sundown, and then unharnessed the carts, drew them up in a contracted circle, and tied the oxen to the wheels.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	traveled	travel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	until	until	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	sundown	sundown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
8	unharnessed	unharness	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	carts	cart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	contracted	contract	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	circle	circle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	oxen	oxen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	wheels	wheel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **travel** | past | men *= man* |  |  |  | until sundown |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **unharness** | past | men *= man* *not said here* | the carts |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **draw up** | past | men *= man* *not said here* | men *= man* |  | a contracted circle |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme in circle=Destination |
| 4 | **contract** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **tie** | past | men *= man* *not said here* | the oxen |  |  |  | to the wheels | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent oxen=Patient to wheel=Co-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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