---
title: The instant that man saw the Future Buddha, he fled in fright. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The instant that man saw the Future Buddha, he fled in fright. Who acts: instant, Buddha. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 4, sentence 114

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The instant that man saw the Future Buddha, he fled in fright.

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**Who acts:** instant, Buddha · **What happens:** see, flee · **To what, where:** Future Buddha, fright

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (instant, Buddha), 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:pg74064:4:120
# text = The instant that man saw the Future Buddha, he fled in fright.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Future	Future	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Buddha	Buddha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the instant | the Future Buddha |  |  |  | that man *nsubj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer buddha=Stimulus |
| 2 | **flee** | past | Buddha |  |  | fright |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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