---
title: The frog also, hearing her words, assented, saying, “Very well.” — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The frog also, hearing her words, assented, saying, “Very well.” Who acts: Elephant. 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 78

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The frog also, hearing her words, assented, saying, “Very well.”

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**Who acts:** Elephant · **What happens:** hear, assent, say, word · **To what, where:** words, frog · **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 (Elephant), 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:pg74064:5:80
# text = The frog also, hearing her words, assented, saying, “Very well.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	frog	frog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	also	also	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	assented	assent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
15	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | gerund |  | Elephant's words |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 2 | **assent** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **word** |  | Elephant |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «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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