---
title: Since he has a thousand faces and a thousand mouths, why can he not… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Since he has a thousand faces and a thousand mouths, why can he not say with one of his mouths to the griffin who is his enemy: ‘Eat me first, O griffin!’” Who acts: Jīmūta, griffin. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 91

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Since he has a thousand faces and a thousand mouths, why can he not say with one of his mouths to the griffin who is his enemy: ‘Eat me first, O griffin!’”

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**Who acts:** Jīmūta, griffin · **What happens:** have, not say, be, eat · **To what, where:** thousand faces, enemy, me · **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 (Jīmūta, griffin), 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:pg74064:16:95
# text = Since he has a thousand faces and a thousand mouths, why can he not say with one of his mouths to the griffin who is his enemy: ‘Eat me first, O griffin!’”
1	Since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
13	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	griffin	griffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
30	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	Eat	eat	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
32	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	36	discourse	_	_
36	griffin	griffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Jīmūta | a thousand faces and thousand mouths |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | can | Jīmūta |  |  |  |  | with one of Jīmūta's mouths to the griffin | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent with one=Manner |
| 3 | **is a** | present | the griffin | Jīmūta's enemy |  |  |  | Jīmūta *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  | griffin *parataxis*; first *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=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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