---
title: As a merciful elephant (4), he spares the life of a tiny quail. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: As a merciful elephant (4), he spares the life of a tiny quail. Who acts: elephant. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 2, sentence 20

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As a merciful elephant (4), he spares the life of a tiny quail.

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**Who acts:** elephant · **What happens:** spare · **To what, where:** life

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (elephant), 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:pg74064:2:21
# text = As a merciful elephant (4), he spares the life of a tiny quail.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	merciful	merciful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	4	4	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	spares	spare	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	quail	quail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spare** | present | elephant | the life of a tiny quail |  |  |  | as a merciful elephant | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent life=Asset |

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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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