The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 211
If a person wished to avoid repeated lives of suffering and misery, he must leave home and family and friends, become a monk, and devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation.
Who acts: way, family · What happens: wish, avoid, repeat, leave, become, devote · To what, where: person, repeated lives, monk, way, bodily torture
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 (way, family), 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 3 person | mark |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 person | det |
| 3 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 leave | advcl |
| 4 | wished | wish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 person | acl |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 avoid | mark |
| 6 | avoid | avoid | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 wished | advcl |
| 7 | repeated | repeat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 lives | amod |
| 8 | lives | life | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 avoid | obj |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 suffering | case |
| 10 | suffering | suffering | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 lives | nmod |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 misery | cc |
| 12 | misery | misery | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 suffering | conj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 person | punct |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 leave | nsubj |
| 15 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 16 leave | aux |
| 16 | leave | leave | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 17 | home | home | ADV | _ | 16 leave | advmod |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 become | cc |
| 19 | family | family | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 become | nsubj |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 friends | cc |
| 21 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 family | conj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 become | punct |
| 23 | become | become | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 leave | conj |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 monk | det |
| 25 | monk | monk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 become | xcomp |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 devote | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 devote | cc |
| 28 | devote | devote | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 leave | conj |
| 29 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 28 devote | obj |
| 30 | to | to | SCONJ | _ | 31 fasting | mark |
| 31 | fasting | fast | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 28 devote | advcl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 torture | punct |
| 33 | bodily | bodily | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 34 torture | amod |
| 34 | torture | torture | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 fasting | obj |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 meditation | punct |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 meditation | cc |
| 37 | meditation | meditation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 leave | parataxis |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 16 leave | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wish | participle | a person not said here | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot | |||||
| 2 | avoid | to-infinitive | repeated lives of suffering and misery | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent life=Location | |||||
| 3 | repeat | participle | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | ||||||
| 4 | leave | must | way | a person advcl; meditation parataxis; home property | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | become | infinitive | family and friends | a monk | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 6 | devote | infinitive | way not said here | way | vn dedicate-79 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent himself=Theme | ||||
| 7 | fast | gerund | way not said here | bodily torture | tree rules |
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/pg74064/1/211/