---
title: And in obedience to the king’s command he let the blind men feel of… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And in obedience to the king’s command he let the blind men feel of the elephant, saying: “This, O blind men, is what an elephant is like.” Who acts: king, blind men, elephant. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 9, sentence 114

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And in obedience to the king’s command he let the blind men feel of the elephant, saying: “This, O blind men, is what an elephant is like.”

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**Who acts:** king, blind men, elephant · **What happens:** let, feel, say, be, command · **To what, where:** blind men, obedience, This · **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 (king, blind men, elephant), 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:pg74064:9:121
# text = And in obedience to the king’s command he let the blind men feel of the elephant, saying: “This, O blind men, is what an elephant is like.”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	obedience	obedience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’s	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	feel	feel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	xcomp	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	26	discourse	_	_
25	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	parataxis	_	_
30	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	like	like	INTJ	UH	_	29	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | past | king | blind men |  | obedience to the king's command |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **feel** | present | the blind men |  |  |  |  | of the elephant | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | king *not said here* | This |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent this=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | a elephant |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **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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