---
title: The Future Buddha approached him and asked: “Why, Master man, do you… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: The Future Buddha approached him and asked: “Why, Master man, do you go about lamenting?” Who acts: Future 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 121

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The Future Buddha approached him and asked: “Why, Master man, do you go about lamenting?”

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**Who acts:** Future Buddha · **What happens:** approach, ask, go, lament · **To what, where:** Devadatta · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Future 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:pg74064:4:127
# text = The Future Buddha approached him and asked: “Why, Master man, do you go about lamenting?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Future	Future	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Buddha	Buddha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	Master	Master	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
18	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	lamenting	lament	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past | the Future Buddha | Devadatta |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Future Buddha *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | present · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **lament** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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