---
title: I cannot consent to save my own body at the cost of thine. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: I cannot consent to save my own body at the cost of thine. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 17, sentence 2

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I cannot consent to save my own body at the cost of thine.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not consent, save, cost · **To what, where:** own body, cost, thine

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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 (I), 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:pg74064:17:2
# text = I cannot consent to save my own body at the cost of thine.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	consent	consent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	thine	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **consent** | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **save** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | my own body |  | the cost of thine |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent body=Theme at cost=Asset |
| 3 | **cost** |  |  | thine |  |  |  |  | nom cost «possession 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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