---
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 youth spoiled a garden; in a previous state of existence also he did naught but spoil a garden.” Who acts: Teacher, present state, youth. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with i
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/14/17/)

<!-- 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 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/14/) / 17

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Said the Teacher: “Not only in his present state of existence has that youth spoiled a garden; in a previous state of existence also he did naught but spoil a garden.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Teacher, present state, youth · **What happens:** say, have, spoil, do · **To what, where:** garden, naught, previous state · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, youth), 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:pg74064:14:18
# text = Said the Teacher: “Not only in his present state of existence has that youth 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	16	det	_	_
16	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	spoiled	spoil	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	previous	previous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	also	also	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
30	naught	naught	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	29	obj	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	spoil	spoil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 youth | a garden |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | past | Teacher | naught |  | a previous state of existence |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent naught=Eventuality |
| 5 | **spoil** *in a quote* | infinitive | Teacher *not said here* | a garden |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/14/16/)
- next →: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/14/18/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/14/)