---
title: For what desire for rule can I have, who am old, when you, who are y… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: For what desire for rule can I have, who am old, when you, who are young, out of compassion towards all living beings, abandon your kingdom as though it were so much straw and stubble?” Who acts: desire, you, kingdom. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 1
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/16/51/)

<!-- 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 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/16/) / 51

# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For what desire for rule can I have, who am old, when you, who are young, out of compassion towards all living beings, abandon your kingdom as though it were so much straw and stubble?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** desire, you, kingdom · **What happens:** have, be, live, abandon · **To what, where:** compassion, kingdom, much straw

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (desire, you, kingdom), 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:pg74064:16:53
# text = For what desire for rule can I have, who am old, when you, who are young, out of compassion towards all living beings, abandon your kingdom as though it were so much straw and stubble?”
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj:outer	_	_
3	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	rule	rule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	out	out	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	compassion	compassion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	det	_	_
26	living	live	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	amod	_	_
27	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	abandon	abandon	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
30	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	as	as	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
33	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
36	so	so	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	stubble	stubble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | can | desire for rule |  |  |  |  | I *nsubj* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | who *nsubj*; old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | you |  |  | compassion towards all living beings |  | who *nsubj*; young *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **live** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **abandon** | infinitive |  | your kingdom |  |  |  | what *nsubj:outer* | vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme kingdom=Source |
| 6 | **is a** | past | kingdom | much straw and stubble |  |  |  | stubble *conj* | 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 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/16/50/)
- next →: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/16/52/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/16/)