---
title: Then he addressed the tiny quail: “Behind us comes a single solitary… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he addressed the tiny quail: “Behind us comes a single solitary elephant; he will not obey our command. Who acts: King, us, our. 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 45

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Then he addressed the tiny quail: “Behind us comes a single solitary elephant; he will not obey our command.

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**Who acts:** King, us, our · **What happens:** address, come, not obey, command · **To what, where:** tiny quail, single solitary elephant, command · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (King, us, our), 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:pg74064:5:47
# text = Then he addressed the tiny quail: “Behind us comes a single solitary elephant; he will not obey our command.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	addressed	address	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	quail	quail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	solitary	solitary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	obey	obey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
21	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **address** | past | King |  | the tiny quail |  | then |  | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent quail=Destination |
| 2 | **come** *in a quote* | present | us | a single solitary elephant |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location elephant=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **obey** *in a quote* | future | King | our command |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent command=Theme |
| 4 | **command** *in a quote* |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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