---
title: One sat guarding the spoils with sword in hand; the other, having pr… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: One sat guarding the spoils with sword in hand; the other, having procured rice, entered the village to have some porridge cooked. Who acts: One. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8, 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/pg74064/8/129/)

<!-- 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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/) / 129

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 129

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One sat guarding the spoils with sword in hand; the other, having procured rice, entered the village to have some porridge cooked.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** One · **What happens:** sit, guard, spoil, have, procure, enter · **To what, where:** procured rice, village, porridge

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (One), 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:pg74064:8:131
# text = One sat guarding the spoils with sword in hand; the other, having procured rice, entered the village to have some porridge cooked.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	guarding	guard	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	spoils	spoil	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
15	procured	procure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	rice	rice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	porridge	porridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	cooked	cook	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | One |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **guard** | gerund | One *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **spoil** | present | One *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with sword in hand | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **have** | gerund | One *not said here* | procured rice |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rice=Patient |
| 5 | **procure** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **enter** | past | One *not said here* | the village |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme village=Destination |
| 7 | **have** | to-infinitive | One *not said here* | some porridge |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent porridge=Patient |
| 8 | **cook** | participle |  | some porridge *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/128/)
- next →: [sentence 130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/130/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/)