---
title: And the griffin, the king of the birds, devours each day the snake w… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And the griffin, the king of the birds, devours each day the snake which Vāsuki, king of the birds, sends to him to eat. Who acts: griffin, Vāsuki. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/16/86/)

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 86

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And the griffin, the king of the birds, devours each day the snake which Vāsuki, king of the birds, sends to him to eat.

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**Who acts:** griffin, Vāsuki · **What happens:** devour, send, eat · **To what, where:** snake, Griffin

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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 (griffin, Vāsuki), 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:pg74064:16:89
# text = And the griffin, the king of the birds, devours each day the snake which Vāsuki, king of the birds, sends to him to eat.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	griffin	griffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	devours	devour	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
17	Vāsuki	Vāsuki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
24	sends	send	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **devour** | present | the griffin | the snake |  |  | day |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent snake=Patient |
| 2 | **send** | present | Vāsuki | the snake | Griffin |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent which=Theme to he=Destination |
| 3 | **eat** | to-infinitive | Vāsuki *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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