---
title: “Master, because I couldn’t distinguish the directions, lost my way,… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “Master, because I couldn’t distinguish the directions, lost my way, and was afraid of death.” Who acts: Future Buddha, directions. 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 122

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“Master, because I couldn’t distinguish the directions, lost my way, and was afraid of death.”

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**Who acts:** Future Buddha, directions · **What happens:** not distinguish, lose, be · **To what, where:** directions, way, Master

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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, directions), 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:pg74064:4:128
# text = “Master, because I couldn’t distinguish the directions, lost my way, and was afraid of death.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **distinguish** *in a quote* | could | the Future Buddha *= buddha* | the directions |  |  |  |  | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute direction=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** *in a quote* | participle | the directions *not said here* | my way |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | the Future Buddha *= buddha* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of death; afraid *property* | tree rules |

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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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