---
title: For example, if they captured father and son, they would say to the… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: For example, if they captured father and son, they would say to the father: “Fetch us ransom-money first; then you may take your son and go.” Who acts: Thieves, father. 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/pg74064/8/88/)

<!-- 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/) / 88

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For example, if they captured father and son, they would say to the father: “Fetch us ransom-money first; then you may take your son and go.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Thieves, father · **What happens:** capture, say, fetch, take, go · **To what, where:** father, ransom money, us, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Thieves, father), 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:pg74064:8:90
# text = For example, if they captured father and son, they would say to the father: “Fetch us ransom-money first; then you may take your son and go.”
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	example	example	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	captured	capture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
20	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	ransom	ransom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
26	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	29	advmod	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	parataxis	_	_
30	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **capture** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Thieves *= thief* | father and son |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent father=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | would | Thieves *= thief* |  | the father |  |  | for example | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to father=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fetch** *in a quote* | infinitive | Thieves *= thief* *not said here* | ransom money | us |  |  | first *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent we=Beneficiary money=Theme |
| 4 | **take** *in a quote* | may | the father *= father* |  | your son |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument son=Destination |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | the father *= father* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/87/)
- next →: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/89/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/8/)