---
title: The fact is, these quails are acting in unison. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The fact is, these quails are acting in unison. Who acts: fact. 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 113

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The fact is, these quails are acting in unison.

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**Who acts:** fact · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** unison

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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 (fact), 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:pg74064:5:117
# text = The fact is, these quails are acting in unison.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:outer	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	quails	quail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	acting	act	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	unison	unison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present · progressive | the fact |  |  | unison |  | this quails *nsubj*; act *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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