---
title: One day, not far from the camp where they were fashioning timbers, a… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, not far from the camp where they were fashioning timbers, a certain elephant trod on an acacia splinter, and the splinter pierced his foot. Who acts: carpenters, certain elephant, splinter. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 3, with its dependen
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 30

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One day, not far from the camp where they were fashioning timbers, a certain elephant trod on an acacia splinter, and the splinter pierced his foot.

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**Who acts:** carpenters, certain elephant, splinter · **What happens:** fashion, tread, pierce · **To what, where:** timbers, acacia splinter, foot

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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 (carpenters, certain elephant, splinter), 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:pg74064:3:32
# text = One day, not far from the camp where they were fashioning timbers, a certain elephant trod on an acacia splinter, and the splinter pierced his foot.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
5	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	camp	camp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
9	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	12	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	fashioning	fashion	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
13	timbers	timber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	trod	tread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	acacia	acacia	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	splinter	splinter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	splinter	splinter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	pierced	pierce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fashion** | past · progressive | carpenters *= carpenter* | timbers |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent timber=Product |
| 2 | **tread** | past | a certain elephant |  |  | a acacia splinter | day |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on splinter=Trajectory |
| 3 | **pierce** | past | the splinter | splinter's foot |  |  |  |  | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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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