---
title: Let these miserable wretches do as they like, but let us not kill th… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Let these miserable wretches do as they like, but let us not kill the members of our own family.” Who acts: you, miserable wretches, wretches, us. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 49

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Let these miserable wretches do as they like, but let us not kill the members of our own family.”

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**Who acts:** you, miserable wretches, wretches, us · **What happens:** let, do, like, not kill · **To what, where:** us, members

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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 (you, miserable wretches, wretches, us), 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:pg74064:16:51
# text = Let these miserable wretches do as they like, but let us not kill the members of our own family.”
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
3	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	wretches	wretch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
12	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	members	member	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | present | this miserable wretches |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **like** | present | wretches *= wretch* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **kill** | infinitive | us *not said here* | the members of our own family |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent member=Theme |

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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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