---
title: When the elephant was well, he thought: “I owe my life to these carp… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: When the elephant was well, he thought: “I owe my life to these carpenters; now I ought to do something for them.” Who acts: elephant. 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 35

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When the elephant was well, he thought: “I owe my life to these carpenters; now I ought to do something for them.”

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**Who acts:** elephant · **What happens:** be, think, owe, do · **To what, where:** life, carpenters, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (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:pg74064:3:37
# text = When the elephant was well, he thought: “I owe my life to these carpenters; now I ought to do something for them.”
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	owe	owe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	carpenters	carpenter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
24	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | the elephant |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Elephant |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **owe** *in a quote* | present | Elephant | my life |  |  |  | to this carpenters *goal* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent life=Theme to carpenter=Goal |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | ought | Elephant | something |  |  | now | for carpenters *= carpenter* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Eventuality |

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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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