---
title: So girding on his sword, he sat watching for his companion to return. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: So girding on his sword, he sat watching for his companion to return. Who acts: fellow. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 133

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So girding on his sword, he sat watching for his companion to return.

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**Who acts:** fellow · **What happens:** gird, sit, watch, return · **To what, where:** sword

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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 (fellow), 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:pg74064:8:135
# text = So girding on his sword, he sat watching for his companion to return.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	girding	gird	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	companion	companion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gird** | gerund | fellow *not said here* |  |  | fellow's sword |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | past | fellow |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **watch** | gerund | fellow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for fellow's companion | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for companion=Theme |
| 4 | **return** | to-infinitive | fellow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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