---
title: Some held that the world is finite, others that the world is infinite. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Some held that the world is finite, others that the world is infinite. Who acts: Some, world. 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 96

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Some held that the world is finite, others that the world is infinite.

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**Who acts:** Some, world · **What happens:** hold, be · **To what, where:** others

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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 (Some, world), 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:pg74064:9:103
# text = Some held that the world is finite, others that the world is infinite.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	nsubj	_	_
2	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	finite	finite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	infinite	infinite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | Some |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | the world |  |  |  |  | others *obl*; finite *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | the world | others *not said here* |  |  |  | infinite *property* | 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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