---
title: His companion replied: “Give ear, and I will tell you the story in a… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: His companion replied: “Give ear, and I will tell you the story in a few words.” Who acts: companion. 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 56

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His companion replied: “Give ear, and I will tell you the story in a few words.”

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**Who acts:** companion · **What happens:** reply, give, tell · **To what, where:** ear, story, you, few words · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (companion), 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:pg74064:16:58
# text = His companion replied: “Give ear, and I will tell you the story in a few words.”
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	companion	companion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | vāhana's companion |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | ear |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ear=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | future | vāhana's companion *= companion* | the story | you | a few words |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient story=Topic |

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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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