---
title: If a person wished to avoid repeated lives of suffering and misery,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: If a person wished to avoid repeated lives of suffering and misery, he must leave home and family and friends, become a monk, and devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation. Who acts: way, family. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1, with
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 1, sentence 211

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If a person wished to avoid repeated lives of suffering and misery, he must leave home and family and friends, become a monk, and devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation.

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**Who acts:** way, family · **What happens:** wish, avoid, repeat, leave, become, devote · **To what, where:** person, repeated lives, monk, way, bodily torture

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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 (way, family), 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:pg74064:1:226
# text = If a person wished to avoid repeated lives of suffering and misery, he must leave home and family and friends, become a monk, and devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	advcl	_	_
4	wished	wish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	amod	_	_
8	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	suffering	suffering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	misery	misery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
17	home	home	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	monk	monk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	devote	devote	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
29	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	28	obj	_	_
30	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
31	fasting	fast	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	bodily	bodily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	torture	torture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	meditation	meditation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | participle |  | a person *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **avoid** | to-infinitive |  | repeated lives of suffering and misery |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent life=Location |
| 3 | **repeat** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **leave** | must | way |  |  |  |  | a person *advcl*; meditation *parataxis*; home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **become** | infinitive | family and friends | a monk |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **devote** | infinitive | way *not said here* | way |  |  |  |  | vn dedicate-79 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 7 | **fast** | gerund | way *not said here* | bodily torture |  |  |  |  | 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.

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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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