---
title: Taking his stand immediately behind his father, the son, with the th… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Taking his stand immediately behind his father, the son, with the thought in his mind, “I’ll hit the mosquito!” raised aloft a big, sharp axe, and split the skull of his father in two. Who acts: son, I, mosquito. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13, wi
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 69

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Taking his stand immediately behind his father, the son, with the thought in his mind, “I’ll hit the mosquito!” raised aloft a big, sharp axe, and split the skull of his father in two.

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**Who acts:** son, I, mosquito · **What happens:** take, hit, raise, split, mind · **To what, where:** stand, mosquito, skull, two · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (son, I, mosquito), 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:pg74064:13:73
# text = Taking his stand immediately behind his father, the son, with the thought in his mind, “I’ll hit the mosquito!” raised aloft a big, sharp axe, and split the skull of his father in two.
1	Taking	take	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	csubj	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	stand	stand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
5	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’ll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	hit	hit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	mosquito	mosquito	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
27	raised	raise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	parataxis	_	_
28	aloft	aloft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	xcomp	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
30	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	split	split	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	skull	skull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | gerund |  | mosquito's stand |  |  |  | behind mosquito's father and the son; with the thought in mosquito's mind; immediately *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stand=Theme |
| 2 | **hit** *in a quote* | future | the son *= son* | the mosquito |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **raise** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | aloft *property* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **split** | past | I *not said here* | the skull of mosquito's father |  | two |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skull=Patient |
| 5 | **mind** |  | mosquito |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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