The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 56

Said the Teacher: “Not only in their present state of existence have utter fools of men, with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll hit mosquitoes,’ hit themselves; in a previous state of existence also they were the very men who, with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll hit a mosquito,’ hit something very different.”

Who acts: Teacher, present state, We, men · What happens: say, have, hit, be, mind · To what, where: utter fools, mosquitoes, men, previous state, mosquito, something · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Teacher, present state, We, men), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 Teacher	det
3	Teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Said	nsubj
4	:	:	PUNCT	_	14 have	punct
5	“	"	PUNCT	_	14 have	punct
6	Not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 state	advmod
7	only	only	ADV	_	11 state	advmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	11 state	case
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 state	nmod:poss
10	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 state	amod
11	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 have	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 existence	case
13	existence	existence	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 state	nmod
14	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Said	parataxis
15	utter	utter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 fools	amod
16	fools	fool	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 have	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 men	case
18	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 fools	nmod
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 thought	punct
20	with	with	ADP	_	22 thought	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 thought	det
22	thought	thought	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 have	obl
23	in	in	ADP	_	25 minds	case
24	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 minds	nmod:poss
25	minds	mind	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 thought	nmod
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 hit	punct
27	‘	'	PUNCT	_	30 hit	punct
28	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	30 hit	nsubj
29	’ll	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	30 hit	aux
30	hit	hit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 have	conj
31	mosquitoes	mosquito	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 hit	obj
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 hit	punct
33	’	'	PUNCT	_	34 hit	punct
34	hit	hit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Said	parataxis
35	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	34 hit	obj
36	;	;	PUNCT	_	40 state	punct
37	in	in	ADP	_	40 state	case
38	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	40 state	det
39	previous	previous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	40 state	amod
40	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 hit	obl
41	of	of	ADP	_	42 existence	case
42	existence	existence	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 state	nmod
43	also	also	ADV	_	48 men	advmod
44	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 men	nsubj
45	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	48 men	cop
46	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 men	det
47	very	very	ADV	_	48 men	advmod
48	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 hit	obl
49	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	66 hit	nsubj
50	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 thought	punct
51	with	with	ADP	_	53 thought	case
52	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	53 thought	det
53	thought	thought	NOUN	Number=Sing	66 hit	nsubj
54	in	in	ADP	_	56 minds	case
55	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	56 minds	nmod:poss
56	minds	mind	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 thought	nmod
57	,	,	PUNCT	_	61 hit	punct
58	‘	'	PUNCT	_	61 hit	punct
59	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	61 hit	nsubj
60	’ll	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	61 hit	aux
61	hit	hit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	56 minds	parataxis
62	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	63 mosquito	det
63	mosquito	mosquito	NOUN	Number=Sing	61 hit	obj
64	,	,	PUNCT	_	61 hit	punct
65	’	'	PUNCT	_	61 hit	punct
66	hit	hit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	48 men	acl:relcl
67	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	66 hit	obj
68	very	very	ADV	_	69 different	advmod
69	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	67 something	amod
70	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Said	punct
71	”	"	PUNCT	_	1 Said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	the Teacher				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have in a quote	present	men's present state of existence	utter fools of men		with the thought in men's minds	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fool=Patient
3	hit in a quote	future	We	mosquitoes			vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mosquito=Co-Theme
4	hit in a quote	past		men = man	a previous state of existence		vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme in state=Destination
5	is a in a quote	past	men = man	the men			tree rules
6	hit in a quote	future	We	a mosquito			vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mosquito=Co-Theme
7	hit in a quote	past	the men	something		the thought in men's minds nsubj	vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme something=Co-Theme
8	mind in a quote		men = man				nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent
9	mind in a quote		men = man				nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

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.

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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🌲 The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 56

The tree

Pragmatics

The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 56