---
title: Before their wings had grown and while they were yet unable to fly,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Before their wings had grown and while they were yet unable to fly, the Great Being came to that spot with his retinue of eighty thousand elephants in search of food. Who acts: wings, eggs, Great. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 5, with its dependency
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 5, sentence 37

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Before their wings had grown and while they were yet unable to fly, the Great Being came to that spot with his retinue of eighty thousand elephants in search of food.

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**Who acts:** wings, eggs, Great · **What happens:** grow, be, fly, search · **To what, where:** food

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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 (wings, eggs, Great), 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:pg74064:5:39
# text = Before their wings had grown and while they were yet unable to fly, the Great Being came to that spot with his retinue of eighty thousand elephants in search of food.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	nsubj	_	_
17	Being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	cop	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	retinue	retinue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	eighty	eighty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	compound	_	_
27	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past · perfect | eggs's wings |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | eggs *= egg* |  |  |  | yet | unable *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **fly** | to-infinitive | eggs *= egg* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | gerund | the Great |  |  |  |  | to that spot with Buddha's retinue of thousand elephants in search of food; come *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **search** |  |  | food |  |  |  |  | nom search «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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