---
title: And going to the brink of the precipice, he tumbled and fell to the… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And going to the brink of the precipice, he tumbled and fell to the foot of the mountain, and met destruction. Who acts: Frog. 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 85

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And going to the brink of the precipice, he tumbled and fell to the foot of the mountain, and met destruction.

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**Who acts:** Frog · **What happens:** go, tumble, fall, meet · **To what, where:** brink, destruction

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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 (Frog), 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:pg74064:5:87
# text = And going to the brink of the precipice, he tumbled and fell to the foot of the mountain, and met destruction.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	brink	brink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	precipice	precipice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	tumbled	tumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
23	destruction	destruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | gerund | Frog *not said here* |  |  | the brink of the precipice |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to brink=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **tumble** | past | Frog |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **fall** | past | Frog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the foot of the mountain | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to foot=Theme |
| 4 | **meet** | past | Frog *not said here* | destruction |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent destruction=Co-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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