---
title: As a wise quail (20 _b_), he outwits a hawk. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: As a wise quail (20 _b_), he outwits a hawk. Who acts: quail. 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 24

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As a wise quail (20 \_b\_), he outwits a hawk.

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**Who acts:** quail · **What happens:** outwit · **To what, where:** hawk

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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 (quail), 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:pg74064:2:25
# text = As a wise quail (20 _b_), he outwits a hawk.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	quail	quail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
5	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	20	20	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	4	appos	_	_
7	_	_	SYM	SYM	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	b	B	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	outwits	outwit	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **outwit** | present | quail | a hawk |  |  |  | as a wise quail | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot hawk=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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