---
title: And the youth was seeking to persuade an old woman who was weeping,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And the youth was seeking to persuade an old woman who was weeping, to cease her weeping and return whence she had come. Who acts: youth, old woman. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 16, sentence 98

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And the youth was seeking to persuade an old woman who was weeping, to cease her weeping and return whence she had come.

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**Who acts:** youth, old woman · **What happens:** seek, persuade, weep, cease, return, come · **To what, where:** old woman, weeping

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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 (youth, old woman), 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:pg74064:16:102
# text = And the youth was seeking to persuade an old woman who was weeping, to cease her weeping and return whence she had come.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	persuade	persuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	weeping	weep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	cease	cease	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	return	return	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
21	whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | past · progressive | the youth |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **persuade** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the youth *not said here* | a old woman |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Patient |
| 3 | **weep** | past · progressive | a old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cease** | to-infinitive |  | youth's weeping |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality weeping=Eventuality |
| 5 | **return** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **come** | past · perfect | youth |  |  |  |  | whence *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **weep** |  | youth |  |  |  |  |  | nom weeping «act intransitive»: poss=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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