---
title: But as for me, I have not long to live; before these things shall co… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: But as for me, I have not long to live; before these things shall come to pass, death will be upon me. Who acts: I, things, death. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/193/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The grateful elephant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/) / [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/) / 193

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 193

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But as for me, I have not long to live; before these things shall come to pass, death will be upon me.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, things, death · **What happens:** have, live, come, pass, be

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, things, death), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:1:207
# text = But as for me, I have not long to live; before these things shall come to pass, death will be upon me.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	4	case	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	2	fixed	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
24	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | I |  |  |  |  | as me; long *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **live** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | shall | this things |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **pass** | to-infinitive | this things *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | future | death |  |  |  |  | upon me | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 192](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/192/)
- next →: [sentence 194](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/194/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/)