---
title: The soothsayers have told us: ‘Seven days hence she will give birth… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The soothsayers have told us: ‘Seven days hence she will give birth to a son.’ Who acts: Seven days. 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 73

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The soothsayers have told us: ‘Seven days hence she will give birth to a son.’

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**Who acts:** Seven days · **What happens:** tell, give · **To what, where:** soothsayers, us, birth, son · **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 (Seven days), 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:pg74064:3:75
# text = The soothsayers have told us: ‘Seven days hence she will give birth to a son.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	soothsayers	soothsayer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
7	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	Seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
10	hence	hence	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
14	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | the soothsayers | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient we=Topic |
| 2 | **give** | future | Seven days | birth | a son |  |  | Kosala *nsubj*; hence *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to son=Recipient |

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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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