---
title: How comes it that Fate and the king of the snakes were able to disco… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: How comes it that Fate and the king of the snakes were able to discover thee, the only son of ill-starred me, though the world of the snakes is wide?” Who acts: world, Fate. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 105

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How comes it that Fate and the king of the snakes were able to discover thee, the only son of ill-starred me, though the world of the snakes is wide?”

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**Who acts:** world, Fate · **What happens:** come, be, discover, star · **To what, where:** agony, thee

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (world, Fate), 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:pg74064:16:109
# text = How comes it that Fate and the king of the snakes were able to discover thee, the only son of ill-starred me, though the world of the snakes is wide?”
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
5	Fate	Fate	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
21	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	starred	star	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
27	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | present | the world of the snakes *not said here* | agony |  |  |  | the only son  me *parataxis* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | Fate and the king of the snakes |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **discover** | to-infinitive | Fate and the king of the snakes *not said here* | thee |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Topic |
| 4 | **star** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | present | the world of the snakes |  |  |  |  | wide *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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