---
title: By performing a work of merit and making an Earnest Wish thereby to… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: By performing a work of merit and making an Earnest Wish thereby to attain Enlightenment in some future state of existence, a Future Buddha, as it were, sows the Seed of Omniscience. Who acts: Future Buddha, Enlightenment, merit. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Ope
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 17, sentence 114

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By performing a work of merit and making an Earnest Wish thereby to attain Enlightenment in some future state of existence, a Future Buddha, as it were, sows the Seed of Omniscience.

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**Who acts:** Future Buddha, Enlightenment, merit · **What happens:** perform, make, attain, be, sow, work · **To what, where:** work, Earnest Wish, Enlightenment, future state, Seed

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Future Buddha, Enlightenment, merit), 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:pg74064:17:115
# text = By performing a work of merit and making an Earnest Wish thereby to attain Enlightenment in some future state of existence, a Future Buddha, as it were, sows the Seed of Omniscience.
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	performing	perform	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	merit	merit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	Earnest	Earnest	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Wish	Wish	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	thereby	thereby	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	attain	attain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
15	Enlightenment	enlightenment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
18	future	future	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	Future	future	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	Buddha	Buddha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
31	sows	sow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	Seed	seed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	Omniscience	omniscience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **perform** | gerund | a Future Buddha *not said here* | a work of merit |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | gerund | a Future Buddha *not said here* | a Earnest Wish |  |  |  | thereby *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset wish=Product |
| 3 | **attain** | to-infinitive | a Future Buddha *not said here* | Enlightenment |  | some future state of existence |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enlightenment=Theme |
| 4 | **be** | past | Enlightenment |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sow** | present | a Future Buddha | the Seed of Omniscience |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **work** |  | merit |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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