---
title: “Whence are we, wretched folk, to obtain a fourfold army drawn up, c… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “Whence are we, wretched folk, to obtain a fourfold army drawn up, clad in armor, standing in a pleasant place, and the rinsings of swords?” Who acts: we. 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 166

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“Whence are we, wretched folk, to obtain a fourfold army drawn up, clad in armor, standing in a pleasant place, and the rinsings of swords?”

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** be, obtain, draw up, clad, stand, rinse · **To what, where:** we, fourfold army, armor, pleasant place, swords

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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 (we), 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:pg74064:5:172
# text = “Whence are we, wretched folk, to obtain a fourfold army drawn up, clad in armor, standing in a pleasant place, and the rinsings of swords?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	fourfold	fourfold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	drawn	draw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	clad	clad	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	armor	armor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	rinsings	rinsing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	swords	sword	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | we |  |  |  | wretched folk *conj*; whence *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **obtain** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | we | a fourfold army |  |  |  | the rinsings of swords *obl* | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent army=Theme |
| 3 | **draw up** *in a quote* | participle |  | a fourfold army *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **clad** *in a quote* | participle | we *not said here* |  |  | armor |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **stand** *in a quote* | gerund | we *not said here* |  |  | a pleasant place |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in place=Location |
| 6 | **rinse** *in a quote* |  |  | swords |  |  |  |  | nom rinsing «act 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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