---
title: After doing his work, he would descend into the river and play, and… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: After doing his work, he would descend into the river and play, and then come back. 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 48

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After doing his work, he would descend into the river and play, and then come back.

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**Who acts:** Elephant · **What happens:** do, descend, come back, work · **To what, where:** work, river

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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:pg74064:3:50
# text = After doing his work, he would descend into the river and play, and then come back.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	descend	descend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
17	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
18	back	back	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | gerund | Elephant *not said here* | Elephant's work |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality |
| 2 | **descend** | would | Elephant |  |  | the river and play |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into river=Location |
| 3 | **come back** | infinitive | Elephant *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **work** |  | Elephant |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=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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