---
title: _ A man who has taken a vow to remain single, and to devote himself… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: _ A man who has taken a vow to remain single, and to devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation as a means of escape from the horrors of repeated existences. Who acts: man, a. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 17, sentence 24

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\_ A man who has taken a vow to remain single, and to devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation as a means of escape from the horrors of repeated existences.

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**Who acts:** man, a · **What happens:** take, remain, devote, fast, mean, repeat · **To what, where:** vow, man, bodily torture

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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 (man, a), 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:pg74064:17:25
# text = _ A man who has taken a vow to remain single, and to devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation as a means of escape from the horrors of repeated existences.
1	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	6	punct	_	_
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	vow	vow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	devote	devote	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
16	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	fasting	fast	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	bodily	bodily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	torture	torture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	meditation	meditation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	nsubj	_	_
27	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
30	from	from	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	horrors	horror	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	amod	_	_
35	existences	existence	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | present · perfect | a man | a vow |  |  |  | meditation *obl*; who *nsubj* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vow=Theme |
| 2 | **remain** | to-infinitive | a man *not said here* | a vow *not said here* |  |  |  | single *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **devote** | to-infinitive | a man *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | vn dedicate-79 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 4 | **fast** | gerund | a man *not said here* | bodily torture |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **mean** | present | a |  |  |  |  | of escape from the horrors of repeated existences | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **repeat** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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