---
title: Now one day the crow pecked out both of the elephant’s eyes, and the… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Now one day the crow pecked out both of the elephant’s eyes, and the fly let a nit drop on them. Who acts: crow, fly. 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/pg74064/5/79/)

<!-- 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/) / 79

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 5, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now one day the crow pecked out both of the elephant’s eyes, and the fly let a nit drop on them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** crow, fly · **What happens:** peck out, let · **To what, where:** both, nit drop

<!-- .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 (crow, fly), 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:pg74064:5:81
# text = Now one day the crow pecked out both of the elephant’s eyes, and the fly let a nit drop on them.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	pecked	peck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fly	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	nit	nit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **peck out** | participle | the crow | both of the elephant's eyes |  |  | now; day |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent both=Patient |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive | the fly | a nit drop |  |  |  | on eyes *= eye* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent drop=Theme on they=Asset |

<!-- .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 78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/78/)
- next →: [sentence 80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/80/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/5/)