---
title: And having approached, he said this to those blind men: “Blind men,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And having approached, he said this to those blind men: “Blind men, have you felt of the elephant?” Who acts: king, blind men. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 9, sentence 123

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And having approached, he said this to those blind men: “Blind men, have you felt of the elephant?”

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**Who acts:** king, blind men · **What happens:** have, approach, say, feel · **To what, where:** 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), 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:pg74064:9:130
# text = And having approached, he said this to those blind men: “Blind men, have you felt of the elephant?”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
3	approached	approach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
10	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
19	felt	feel	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | gerund | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **approach** | participle | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | king | this |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **feel** *in a quote* | present · perfect | that blind men |  |  |  |  | of the elephant | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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