---
title: Along the road, at a certain place in the forest, five hundred Despa… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Along the road, at a certain place in the forest, five hundred Despatcher-thieves were in the habit of committing outrages on travelers. Who acts: certain place, habit. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/84/)

<!-- 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/) / 84

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 84

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Along the road, at a certain place in the forest, five hundred Despatcher-thieves were in the habit of committing outrages on travelers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** certain place, habit · **What happens:** be, commit · **To what, where:** habit, outrages, travelers

<!-- .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 (certain place, habit), 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:pg74064:8:86
# text = Along the road, at a certain place in the forest, five hundred Despatcher-thieves were in the habit of committing outrages on travelers.
1	Along	along	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	compound	_	_
14	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
15	Despatcher	Despatcher	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	habit	habit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
22	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	committing	commit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
24	outrages	outrage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	travelers	traveler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | a certain place in the forest |  |  | the habit |  | along the road; hundred Despatcher thieves *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **commit** | gerund | the habit *not said here* | outrages |  | travelers |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent outrage=Theme |

<!-- .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 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/83/)
- next →: [sentence 85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/85/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/)