---
title: Said the Buddha: “In weeping over the death of sons and daughters an… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Said the Buddha: “In weeping over the death of sons and daughters and other dear ones, every person, in the course of his past lives, has shed tears more abundant than all the water contained in the four great oceans.” Who acts: Buddha, sons. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Bu
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 205

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Said the Buddha: “In weeping over the death of sons and daughters and other dear ones, every person, in the course of his past lives, has shed tears more abundant than all the water contained in the four great oceans.”

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**Who acts:** Buddha, sons · **What happens:** say, shed, contain, die · **To what, where:** water, four great oceans · **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 (Buddha, sons), 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:pg74064:1:220
# text = Said the Buddha: “In weeping over the death of sons and daughters and other dear ones, every person, in the course of his past lives, has shed tears more abundant than all the water contained in the four great oceans.”
1	Said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Buddha	Buddha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	In	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	ccomp	_	_
8	over	over	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	det	_	_
21	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	past	past	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	shed	shed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	parataxis	_	_
33	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
34	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	35	advmod	_	_
35	abundant	abundant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	xcomp	_	_
36	than	than	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	39	det:predet	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
40	contained	contain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	acl	_	_
41	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
43	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	45	nummod	_	_
44	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	oceans	ocean	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Buddha |  |  |  |  | weeping over the death of sons and daughters and other dear ones and every person *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **shed** *in a quote* | present · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | abundant *property* | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 3 | **contain** *in a quote* | participle |  | all water *not said here* |  | the four great oceans |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in ocean=Location |
| 4 | **die** *in a quote* |  | sons and daughters and other dear ones |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/1/)