---
title: This, your majesty, is what my father meant when he said to me in th… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: This, your majesty, is what my father meant when he said to me in the hour of death: ‘Not long.’ Who acts: majesty, father. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 6, sentence 129

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This, your majesty, is what my father meant when he said to me in the hour of death: ‘Not long.’

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**Who acts:** majesty, father · **What happens:** be, mean, say · **To what, where:** me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (majesty, father), 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:pg74064:6:129
# text = This, your majesty, is what my father meant when he said to me in the hour of death: ‘Not long.’
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	majesty	majesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | your majesty |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **mean** | past | my father |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | father |  | me |  | hour | long *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to i=Recipient |

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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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