---
title: I know a way by which he shall not be able to catch us. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: I know a way by which he shall not be able to catch us. Who acts: I, Buddha. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 5, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I know a way by which he shall not be able to catch us.

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**Who acts:** I, Buddha · **What happens:** know, not be, catch · **To what, where:** way, us

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Buddha), 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:pg74064:5:107
# text = I know a way by which he shall not be able to catch us.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
8	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	acl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | I | a way |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **is** | shall | Buddha |  |  |  |  | by a way; able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **catch** | to-infinitive | Buddha *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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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