---
title: The blind men who had felt of the elephant’s tusks, said: “Your maje… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The blind men who had felt of the elephant’s tusks, said: “Your majesty, an elephant is like a plow-share.” Who acts: blind men, elephant. 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 128

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The blind men who had felt of the elephant’s tusks, said: “Your majesty, an elephant is like a plow-share.”

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**Who acts:** blind men, elephant · **What happens:** feel, say, be · **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 (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:pg74064:9:135
# text = The blind men who had felt of the elephant’s tusks, said: “Your majesty, an elephant is like a plow-share.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	felt	feel	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	tusks	tusk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	majesty	majesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	plow	plow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	share	share	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | past · perfect | the blind men |  |  |  |  | of the elephant's tusks | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the blind men |  |  |  |  | Your majesty *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | a elephant |  |  |  |  | like a plow share | 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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