---
title: Now that elephant had a son, and he was pure white, a noble son of a… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Now that elephant had a son, and he was pure white, a noble son of a noble sire. 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 38

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Now that elephant had a son, and he was pure white, a noble son of a noble sire.

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**Who acts:** elephant · **What happens:** have, be · **To what, where:** son

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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:pg74064:3:40
# text = Now that elephant had a son, and he was pure white, a noble son of a noble sire.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	vocative	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	sire	sire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | that elephant | a son |  |  | now |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | Elephant |  |  |  |  | a noble son of a noble sire *vocative*; white *property* | tree rules |

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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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