---
title: But they pierced one another and returned themselves the worse for w… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: But they pierced one another and returned themselves the worse for wear.” Who acts: 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 55

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But they pierced one another and returned themselves the worse for wear.”

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** pierce, return · **To what, where:** one, men

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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 (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:pg74064:13:59
# text = But they pierced one another and returned themselves the worse for wear.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pierced	pierce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obj	_	_
5	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	fixed	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	ccomp	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	wear	wear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pierce** | past | men *= man* | one |  |  |  |  | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 2 | **return** | past | men *= man* *not said here* | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=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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