---
title: “I, sir, am a poor man, a pauper, unable to make a living. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “I, sir, am a poor man, a pauper, unable to make a living. Who acts: 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 138

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“I, sir, am a poor man, a pauper, unable to make a living.

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**Who acts:** Buddha · **What happens:** be, make · **To what, where:** poor man, living

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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 (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:pg74064:4:144
# text = “I, sir, am a poor man, a pauper, unable to make a living.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	pauper	pauper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Buddha | a poor man and a pauper |  |  |  | a pauper *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** *in a quote* |  | Buddha *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Buddha *not said here* | a living |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset living=Product |

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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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