---
title: “Reverend Sir, these men started out with the thought in their minds… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: “Reverend Sir, these men started out with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll have a fight with the mosquitoes.’ Who acts: Reverend, We, men. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 54

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“Reverend Sir, these men started out with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll have a fight with the mosquitoes.’

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**Who acts:** Reverend, We, men · **What happens:** start out, have, mind · **To what, where:** fight

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Reverend, We, men), 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:pg74064:13:58
# text = “Reverend Sir, these men started out with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll have a fight with the mosquitoes.’
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Reverend	Reverend	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	minds	mind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’ll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	fight	fight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	mosquitoes	mosquito	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start out** *in a quote* | past | Reverend |  |  |  |  | with the thought in men's minds; this men *nsubj* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with thought=Subeventuality |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | future | We | a fight |  |  |  | with the mosquitoes | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fight=Patient |
| 3 | **mind** *in a quote* |  | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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