---
title: And when, in obedience to the king’s command, he had laid hands on a… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And when, in obedience to the king’s command, he had laid hands on all the men in Sāvatthi who were blind from birth, he approached that king. Who acts: men, king. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 9, sentence 109

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And when, in obedience to the king’s command, he had laid hands on all the men in Sāvatthi who were blind from birth, he approached that king.

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**Who acts:** men, king · **What happens:** lay, be, approach, command · **To what, where:** obedience, birth, king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, king), 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:pg74064:9:116
# text = And when, in obedience to the king’s command, he had laid hands on all the men in Sāvatthi who were blind from birth, he approached that king.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	14	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	obedience	obedience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	advcl	_	_
15	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Sāvatthi	Sāvatthi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	acl:relcl	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
30	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
31	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | past · perfect · passive |  | obedience to the king's command |  |  |  | king *nsubj*; hands *obj* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme hand=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | all men in Sāvatthi |  |  | birth |  | blind *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **approach** | past | king | that king |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Theme |
| 4 | **command** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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