---
title: When the Teacher had completed this parable, he said: “Monks, carele… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: When the Teacher had completed this parable, he said: “Monks, careless handling of property is like careless handling of deadly poison.” Who acts: Teacher, Monks. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 89

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When the Teacher had completed this parable, he said: “Monks, careless handling of property is like careless handling of deadly poison.”

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**Who acts:** Teacher, Monks · **What happens:** complete, say, be, handle · **To what, where:** parable, property · **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, 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:pg74064:14:94
# text = When the Teacher had completed this parable, he said: “Monks, careless handling of property is like careless handling of deadly poison.”
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Teacher	Teacher	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	completed	complete	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	parable	parable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Monks	monk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	handling	handling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	property	property	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	handling	handling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **complete** | past · perfect | the Teacher | this parable |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parable=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Teacher |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Monks and careless handling of property |  |  |  |  | like careless handling; of deadly poison | tree rules |
| 4 | **handle** *in a quote* |  |  | property |  |  |  |  | nom handling «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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