---
title: When he was twenty-nine years old, a change came over him. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: When he was twenty-nine years old, a change came over him. Who acts: Gotama, change. 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 198

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When he was twenty-nine years old, a change came over him.

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**Who acts:** Gotama, change · **What happens:** be, come

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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 (Gotama, change), 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:pg74064:1:212
# text = When he was twenty-nine years old, a change came over him.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	8	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Gotama |  |  |  | year | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | a change |  |  |  |  | over Gotama | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme over he=Initial\_Location |

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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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