---
title: The tiny quail then ministered to a green fly. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The tiny quail then ministered to a green fly. 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 70

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The tiny quail then ministered to a green fly.

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**What happens:** minister · **To what, where:** tiny quail

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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: 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:pg74064:5:72
# text = The tiny quail then ministered to a green fly.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	quail	quail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
5	ministered	minister	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	fly	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **minister** | participle · passive |  | the tiny quail |  |  | then | to a green fly | tree rules |

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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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