---
title: Halting not far from Benāres, he sent, by the hand of a certain man,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Halting not far from Benāres, he sent, by the hand of a certain man, the following message to the king of Benāres: “Give me battle or the kingdom!” Who acts: man. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/42/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The grateful elephant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/) / [Opening, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/) / 42

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 10, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Halting not far from Benāres, he sent, by the hand of a certain man, the following message to the king of Benāres: “Give me battle or the kingdom!”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** halt, send, follow, give · **To what, where:** hand, battle, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:10:43
# text = Halting not far from Benāres, he sent, by the hand of a certain man, the following message to the king of Benāres: “Give me battle or the kingdom!”
1	Halting	halt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
2	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	1	advmod	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Benāres	Benāres	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	amod	_	_
20	message	message	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Benāres	Benāres	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
27	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	parataxis	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	iobj	_	_
30	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **halt** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **send** | past | man | the hand of a certain man  the following message to the king of Benāres |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 3 | **follow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | battle or the kingdom | man |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient battle=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/43/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/)