---
title: Thought he: “These thousand thieves have come to ruin save only two. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Thought he: “These thousand thieves have come to ruin save only two. Who acts: thousand thieves. 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 147

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Thought he: “These thousand thieves have come to ruin save only two.

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**Who acts:** thousand thieves · **What happens:** think, come, ruin, save · **To what, where:** teacher, two · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (thousand thieves), 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:pg74064:8:149
# text = Thought he: “These thousand thieves have come to ruin save only two.
1	Thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	ruin	ruin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | teacher |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=Theme |
| 2 | **come** *in a quote* | present · perfect | thousand thieves |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ruin** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | thousand thieves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **save** *in a quote* | infinitive | thousand thieves *not said here* | two |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent two=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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