---
title: Similarly, if they captured mother and daughter, they would despatch… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Similarly, if they captured mother and daughter, they would despatch the mother; if they captured an older and a younger brother, they would despatch the older; if they captured teacher and pupil, they would despatch the pupil.) Who acts: Thieves. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Wats
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 89

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Similarly, if they captured mother and daughter, they would despatch the mother; if they captured an older and a younger brother, they would despatch the older; if they captured teacher and pupil, they would despatch the pupil.)

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**Who acts:** Thieves · **What happens:** capture, despatch · **To what, where:** mother, older, teacher, pupil

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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 (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:pg74064:8:91
# text = Similarly, if they captured mother and daughter, they would despatch the mother; if they captured an older and a younger brother, they would despatch the older; if they captured teacher and pupil, they would despatch the pupil.)
1	Similarly	similarly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	captured	capture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	despatch	despatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	captured	capture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	xcomp	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	younger	young	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	amod	_	_
24	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	despatch	despatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	captured	capture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
35	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	pupil	pupil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	despatch	despatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	pupil	pupil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	41	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **capture** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Thieves *= thief* | mother and daughter |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Theme |
| 2 | **despatch** | would | Thieves *= thief* | the mother |  |  |  | similarly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **capture** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Thieves *= thief* |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **despatch** | would | Thieves *= thief* | the older |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **capture** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Thieves *= thief* | teacher and pupil |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent teacher=Theme |
| 6 | **despatch** | would | Thieves *= thief* | the pupil |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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