---
title: In times past, when Brahmadatta ruled at Benāres, four Brahman broth… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: In times past, when Brahmadatta ruled at Benāres, four Brahman brothers in the kingdom of Kāsi adopted the life of ascetics, and building a row of leaf-huts in the Himālaya region, took up their abode there. Who acts: Brahmadatta, four Brahman brothers. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugen
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/9/148/)

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 9, sentence 148

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In times past, when Brahmadatta ruled at Benāres, four Brahman brothers in the kingdom of Kāsi adopted the life of ascetics, and building a row of leaf-huts in the Himālaya region, took up their abode there.

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**Who acts:** Brahmadatta, four Brahman brothers · **What happens:** rule, adopt, build, take up · **To what, where:** Benāres, life, row, Himālaya region, abode

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Brahmadatta, four Brahman brothers), 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:pg74064:9:158
# text = In times past, when Brahmadatta ruled at Benāres, four Brahman brothers in the kingdom of Kāsi adopted the life of ascetics, and building a row of leaf-huts in the Himālaya region, took up their abode there.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
3	past	past	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	Brahmadatta	Brahmadatta	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	ruled	rule	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Benāres	Benāres	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	Brahman	Brahman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Kāsi	Kāsi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	adopted	adopt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	ascetics	ascetic	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	building	build	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	row	row	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	huts	hut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	Himālaya	Himālaya	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	region	region	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	_
40	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	abode	abode	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
42	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rule** | past | Brahmadatta |  |  | Benāres | time |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **adopt** | past | four Brahman brothers in the kingdom of Kāsi | the life of ascetics |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 3 | **build** | gerund | Brahmadatta *not said here* | a row of leaf huts |  | the Himālaya region |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset row=Product |
| 4 | **take up** | past | Brahmadatta *not said here* | brothers's abode |  | there |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent abode=Theme |

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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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