---
title: The Buddhist Scriptures tell us that when Gotama was born, the angel… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The Buddhist Scriptures tell us that when Gotama was born, the angels rejoiced and sang. Who acts: Buddhist Scriptures, angels. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 182

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The Buddhist Scriptures tell us that when Gotama was born, the angels rejoiced and sang.

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**Who acts:** Buddhist Scriptures, angels · **What happens:** tell, bear, rejoice, sing · **To what, where:** us, Gotama · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Buddhist Scriptures, angels), 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:pg74064:1:196
# text = The Buddhist Scriptures tell us that when Gotama was born, the angels rejoiced and sang.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Buddhist	buddhist	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Scriptures	Scripture	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	Gotama	Gotama	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	angels	angel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	rejoiced	rejoice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | the Buddhist Scriptures |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 2 | **bear** | past · passive |  | Gotama |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **rejoice** | past | the angels |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the angels *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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