---
title: The king caused the gates to be flung open, went to the river-bank,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The king caused the gates to be flung open, went to the river-bank, and caused them to search here and there. Who acts: king, gates. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 131

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The king caused the gates to be flung open, went to the river-bank, and caused them to search here and there.

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**Who acts:** king, gates · **What happens:** cause, fling, go, search · **To what, where:** gates, river bank

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, gates), 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:pg74064:3:136
# text = The king caused the gates to be flung open, went to the river-bank, and caused them to search here and there.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	flung	fling	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
9	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	search	search	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
23	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cause** | past | the king | the gates |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition gate=Patient |
| 2 | **fling** | to-infinitive · passive | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | open *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP» |
| 3 | **go** | past | the king *not said here* |  |  | the river bank |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to bank=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **cause** | past |  | gates *= gate* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **search** | to-infinitive | gates *= gate* *not said here* |  |  | here; there |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: 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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