---
title: Said the Teacher: “Monks, not only in his present state of existence… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Said the Teacher: “Monks, not only in his present state of existence has Devadatta proved ungrateful; in a previous state of existence also he was ungrateful just the same.” Who acts: Teacher, Devadatta. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 5, with its dep
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 5, sentence 19

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Said the Teacher: “Monks, not only in his present state of existence has Devadatta proved ungrateful; in a previous state of existence also he was ungrateful just the same.”

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**Who acts:** Teacher, Devadatta · **What happens:** say, have, prove, be · **To what, where:** previous state · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Teacher, Devadatta), 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:pg74064:5:19
# text = Said the Teacher: “Monks, not only in his present state of existence has Devadatta proved ungrateful; in a previous state of existence also he was ungrateful just the same.”
1	Said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Monks	monk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
9	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	acl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
16	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
17	Devadatta	Devadatta	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	proved	prove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
19	ungrateful	ungrateful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	previous	previous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	also	also	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	ungrateful	ungrateful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	ccomp	_	_
31	just	just	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Teacher |  |  | a previous state of existence |  | Monks in Teacher's present state *parataxis* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | of existence | tree rules |
| 3 | **prove** *in a quote* | past | Devadatta |  |  |  |  | ungrateful *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | past | Devadatta |  |  |  |  | same, ungrateful *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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