---
title: Said the Teacher: “Not only in his present state of existence has th… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Said the Teacher: “Not only in his present state of existence has that village boy spoiled a garden; in a previous state of existence also he did naught but spoil a garden.” Who acts: Teacher, present state, village boy, boy. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 1

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Said the Teacher: “Not only in his present state of existence has that village boy spoiled a garden; in a previous state of existence also he did naught but spoil a garden.”

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**Who acts:** Teacher, present state, village boy, boy · **What happens:** say, have, spoil, do · **To what, where:** garden, naught, previous state · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Teacher, present state, village boy, boy), 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:pg74064:14:1
# text = Said the Teacher: “Not only in his present state of existence has that village boy spoiled a garden; in a previous state of existence also he did naught but spoil a garden.”
1	Said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
15	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
16	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	spoiled	spoil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	previous	previous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	also	also	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
31	naught	naught	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	30	obj	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	spoil	spoil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Teacher |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present | Teacher's present state of existence |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **spoil** *in a quote* | past | that village boy | a garden |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | past | boy | naught |  | a previous state of existence |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent naught=Eventuality |
| 5 | **spoil** *in a quote* | infinitive | boy *not said here* | a garden |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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