---
title: The monks approached the Teacher and reported that matter to him. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The monks approached the Teacher and reported that matter to him. Who acts: monks. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 123

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The monks approached the Teacher and reported that matter to him.

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**Who acts:** monks · **What happens:** approach, report · **To what, where:** Teacher

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (monks), 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:pg74064:13:131
# text = The monks approached the Teacher and reported that matter to him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	monks	monk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Teacher	Teacher	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	reported	report	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past | the monks | the Teacher |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent teacher=Theme |
| 2 | **report** | past | the monks *not said here* |  | Teacher |  |  | matter *ccomp* | vn subordinate-95.2.1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-Agent |

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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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