The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 205
Said the Buddha: “In weeping over the death of sons and daughters and other dear ones, every person, in the course of his past lives, has shed tears more abundant than all the water contained in the four great oceans.”
Who acts: Buddha, sons · What happens: say, shed, contain, die · To what, where: water, four great oceans · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Buddha, sons), 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 Buddha | det |
| 3 | Buddha | Buddha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Said | nsubj |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 weeping | punct |
| 5 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 weeping | punct |
| 6 | In | in | ADP | _ | 7 weeping | case |
| 7 | weeping | weeping | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Said | ccomp |
| 8 | over | over | ADP | _ | 10 death | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 death | det |
| 10 | death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 weeping | nmod |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 sons | case |
| 12 | sons | son | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 death | nmod |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 daughters | cc |
| 14 | daughters | daughter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 sons | conj |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 ones | cc |
| 16 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 ones | amod |
| 17 | dear | dear | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 ones | amod |
| 18 | ones | one | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 sons | conj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 person | punct |
| 20 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 21 person | det |
| 21 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 weeping | conj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 course | punct |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 25 course | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 course | det |
| 25 | course | course | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 person | appos |
| 26 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 lives | case |
| 27 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 lives | nmod:poss |
| 28 | past | past | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 lives | amod |
| 29 | lives | life | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 course | nmod |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 shed | punct |
| 31 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 32 shed | aux |
| 32 | shed | shed | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 7 weeping | parataxis |
| 33 | tears | tear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 abundant | nsubj |
| 34 | more | more | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 35 abundant | advmod |
| 35 | abundant | abundant | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 shed | xcomp |
| 36 | than | than | ADP | _ | 39 water | case |
| 37 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 39 water | det:predet |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 water | det |
| 39 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 abundant | obl |
| 40 | contained | contain | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 39 water | acl |
| 41 | in | in | ADP | _ | 45 oceans | case |
| 42 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 oceans | det |
| 43 | four | four | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 45 oceans | nummod |
| 44 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 oceans | amod |
| 45 | oceans | ocean | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 contained | obl |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 32 shed | punct |
| 47 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 weeping | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the Buddha | weeping over the death of sons and daughters and other dear ones and every person ccomp | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | shed in a quote | present · perfect | abundant property | vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source | |||||
| 3 | contain in a quote | participle | all water not said here | the four great oceans | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in ocean=Location | ||||
| 4 | die in a quote | sons and daughters and other dear ones | nom death «event intransitive»: of=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/205/