---
title: And they took counsel together, saying: “What’s to be done now?” — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And they took counsel together, saying: “What’s to be done now?” Who acts: Woodpecker. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 7, sentence 23

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And they took counsel together, saying: “What’s to be done now?”

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**Who acts:** Woodpecker · **What happens:** take, say, do · **To what, where:** counsel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Woodpecker), 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:pg74064:7:25
# text = And they took counsel together, saying: “What’s to be done now?”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	counsel	counsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	together	together	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	_
15	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Woodpecker | counsel |  |  |  | together *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent counsel=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | gerund | Woodpecker *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present · passive |  |  |  |  | now | What *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: what=Eventuality |

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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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