---
title: True is this saying of some men of the world: “Driftwood is worth mo… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: True is this saying of some men of the world: “Driftwood is worth more than some men!” Who acts: True, Driftwood. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 4, sentence 60

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True is this saying of some men of the world: “Driftwood is worth more than some men!”

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**Who acts:** True, Driftwood · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** saying · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (True, Driftwood), 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:pg74064:4:64
# text = True is this saying of some men of the world: “Driftwood is worth more than some men!”
1	True	true	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	saying	saying	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Driftwood	driftwood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
16	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	obj	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | True | this saying |  |  |  | of some men of the world | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Driftwood |  |  |  |  | worth *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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