---
title: According to this belief, every person has been born and has lived a… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: According to this belief, every person has been born and has lived and died so many times that it would be impossible to count the number. 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 202

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According to this belief, every person has been born and has lived and died so many times that it would be impossible to count the number.

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**What happens:** accord, bear, live, die, be, count · **To what, where:** person, number

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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: 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:pg74064:1:217
# text = According to this belief, every person has been born and has lived and died so many times that it would be impossible to count the number.
1	According	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	case	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	belief	belief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	expl	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
23	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	count	count	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	csubj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **bear** | present · perfect · passive |  | every person |  |  |  | accord this belief | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **live** | present · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **die** | past |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **count** | to-infinitive |  | the number |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=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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