---
title: He urged upon his hearers to avoid the two extremes of a life devote… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: He urged upon his hearers to avoid the two extremes of a life devoted to fasting and self-torture, and a life of self-indulgence. Who acts: Buddha. 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 232

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He urged upon his hearers to avoid the two extremes of a life devoted to fasting and self-torture, and a life of self-indulgence.

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**Who acts:** Buddha · **What happens:** urge, avoid, devote · **To what, where:** life, two extremes, fasting

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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), 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:pg74064:1:249
# text = He urged upon his hearers to avoid the two extremes of a life devoted to fasting and self-torture, and a life of self-indulgence.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	urged	urge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	hearers	hearer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	extremes	extreme	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	devoted	devote	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	fasting	fasting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	self	self	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	torture	torture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	self	self	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	indulgence	indulgence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **urge** | past | Buddha | a life of self indulgence |  |  |  | upon Buddha's hearers | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **avoid** | to-infinitive | Buddha *not said here* | the two extremes of a life |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent extreme=Location |
| 3 | **devote** | participle |  | a life *not said here* |  |  |  | to fasting and self torture *goal* | vn dedicate-79 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent to fasting=Goal |

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