---
title: Then, cleaving the stream of water, he went and laid hold of that tr… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, cleaving the stream of water, he went and laid hold of that tree-trunk by one end, and pulled it. 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 8

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Then, cleaving the stream of water, he went and laid hold of that tree-trunk by one end, and pulled it.

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**Who acts:** Buddha · **What happens:** cleave, go, lay, pull, hold · **To what, where:** stream, hold, tree trunk

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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:pg74064:4:9
# text = Then, cleaving the stream of water, he went and laid hold of that tree-trunk by one end, and pulled it.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	cleaving	cleave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
13	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
16	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cleave** | gerund | Buddha *not said here* | the stream of water |  |  | then |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stream=Patient |
| 2 | **go** | past | Buddha |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **lay** | past | Buddha *not said here* | hold of that tree trunk |  |  | by one end |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hold=Theme by end=Destination |
| 4 | **pull** | past | Buddha *not said here* | hold |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **hold** |  |  | that tree trunk |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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