---
title: The older ascetic asked: “But do you or do you not wish that dragon… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The older ascetic asked: “But do you or do you not wish that dragon never to come back again?” Who acts: older ascetic, you, dragon. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 11, sentence 110

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The older ascetic asked: “But do you or do you not wish that dragon never to come back again?”

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**Who acts:** older ascetic, you, dragon · **What happens:** ask, do, not wish, not come back · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (older ascetic, you, dragon), 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:pg74064:11:117
# text = The older ascetic asked: “But do you or do you not wish that dragon never to come back again?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
3	ascetic	ascetic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	again	again	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the older ascetic |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | present |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **wish** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **not** **come back** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | dragon |  |  |  | again |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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