---
title: Indeed, so far back into the past does this series of lives extend t… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Indeed, so far back into the past does this series of lives extend that it is impossible even to imagine a beginning of the series. Who acts: series. 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 203

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Indeed, so far back into the past does this series of lives extend that it is impossible even to imagine a beginning of the series.

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**Who acts:** series · **What happens:** do, extend, be, imagine, begin · **To what, where:** beginning, series

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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 (series), 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:pg74064:1:218
# text = Indeed, so far back into the past does this series of lives extend that it is impossible even to imagine a beginning of the series.
1	Indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	series	series	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
14	extend	extend	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	expl	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	_
19	even	even	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	csubj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	series	series	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present |  |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **extend** | present | this series of lives |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | present | this series of lives *not said here* |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **imagine** | to-infinitive |  | a beginning of the series |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot beginning=Theme |
| 5 | **begin** |  |  | the series |  |  |  |  | nom beginning «event transitive»: of=patient |

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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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