---
title: Said the tiny quail: “Master, there is only one thing I want done. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Said the tiny quail: “Master, there is only one thing I want done. Who acts: tiny quail, one thing. 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 67

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Said the tiny quail: “Master, there is only one thing I want done.

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**Who acts:** tiny quail, one thing · **What happens:** say, be, want, do · **To what, where:** one thing · **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 (tiny quail, one thing), 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:pg74064:5:69
# text = Said the tiny quail: “Master, there is only one thing I want done.
1	Said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	quail	quail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the tiny quail |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **be** *in a quote* | present | one thing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **want** *in a quote* | present | the tiny quail *= quail* | one thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** *not said to happen, in a quote* | participle | one thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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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