---
title: Said the Great Being: “Do not worry, tiny quail; I will protect your… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Said the Great Being: “Do not worry, tiny quail; I will protect your little ones.” Who acts: I. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/43/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The grateful elephant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/) / [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/) / 43

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 5, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Said the Great Being: “Do not worry, tiny quail; I will protect your little ones.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** say, not worry, protect · **To what, where:** tiny quail, little ones · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:5:45
# text = Said the Great Being: “Do not worry, tiny quail; I will protect your little ones.”
1	Said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	xcomp	_	_
4	Being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	worry	worry	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	quail	quail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	protect	protect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	ccomp	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  | great *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **worry** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support |  | tiny quail |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **protect** *in a quote* | future | I | your little ones |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/42/)
- next →: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/44/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/)