---
title: I have not heeded the words of wise men of old!’” — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: I have not heeded the words of wise men of old!’” Who acts: I. 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 67

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I have not heeded the words of wise men of old!’”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not heed, word · **To what, where:** words, wise men

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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 (I), 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:pg74064:4:71
# text = I have not heeded the words of wise men of old!’”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	heeded	heed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **heed** | present · perfect | I | the words of wise men of old |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 2 | **word** |  |  | wise men of old |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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