---
title: He broke down the stockade, seized the king of Kosala by the top-kno… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: He broke down the stockade, seized the king of Kosala by the top-knot, and carried him and laid him at the Future Buddha’s feet. Who acts: Elephant. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 96

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He broke down the stockade, seized the king of Kosala by the top-knot, and carried him and laid him at the Future Buddha’s feet.

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**Who acts:** Elephant · **What happens:** break down, seize, carry, lay · **To what, where:** stockade, king, Elephant, feet

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Elephant), 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:pg74064:3:98
# text = He broke down the stockade, seized the king of Kosala by the top-knot, and carried him and laid him at the Future Buddha’s feet.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	stockade	stockade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Kosala	Kosala	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	top	top	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	Future	Future	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	Buddha	Buddha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’s	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break down** | past | Elephant | the stockade |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stockade=Patient |
| 2 | **seize** | past | Elephant *not said here* | the king of Kosala |  |  |  | by the top knot | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Theme |
| 3 | **carry** | past |  | Elephant |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **lay** | past |  | Elephant |  | the Future Buddha's feet |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme at foot=Destination |

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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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