---
title: She said to her daughter: “My dear, the flies are eating me up. — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: She said to her daughter: “My dear, the flies are eating me up. Who acts: merchant, flies. 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 86

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She said to her daughter: “My dear, the flies are eating me up.

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**Who acts:** merchant, flies · **What happens:** say, eat up · **To what, where:** daughter, merchant · **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 (merchant, flies), 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:pg74064:13:91
# text = She said to her daughter: “My dear, the flies are eating me up.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	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 | merchant |  | merchant's daughter |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to daughter=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **eat up** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the flies | merchant |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |

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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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