---
title: “I am not stark mad, I assure you, nor do I talk gibberish. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “I am not stark mad, I assure you, nor do I talk gibberish. Who acts: Dīghāvu. 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 44

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“I am not stark mad, I assure you, nor do I talk gibberish.

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**Who acts:** Dīghāvu · **What happens:** not stark, assure, talk · **To what, where:** you, gibberish

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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 (Dīghāvu), 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:pg74064:6:44
# text = “I am not stark mad, I assure you, nor do I talk gibberish.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	stark	stark	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	assure	assure	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	15	cc	_	_
13	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
16	gibberish	gibberish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **stark** *in a quote* | present | Dīghāvu |  |  |  |  | mad *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **assure** *in a quote* | present | Dīghāvu |  | you |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 3 | **talk** *in a quote* | present · do-support | Dīghāvu | gibberish |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent gibberish=Patient |

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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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