---
title: Raising her pestle aloft, intending to kill the flies, with the thou… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Raising her pestle aloft, intending to kill the flies, with the thought in her mind, “I’ll make way with them!” she struck her mother with the pestle and killed her. Who acts: merchant. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 13, sentence 89

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Raising her pestle aloft, intending to kill the flies, with the thought in her mind, “I’ll make way with them!” she struck her mother with the pestle and killed her.

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**Who acts:** merchant · **What happens:** raise, intend, kill, make, strike, mind · **To what, where:** pestle, flies, way, mother, 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), 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:pg74064:13:94
# text = Raising her pestle aloft, intending to kill the flies, with the thought in her mind, “I’ll make way with them!” she struck her mother with the pestle and killed her.
1	Raising	raise	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	csubj	_	_
2	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	pestle	pestle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	aloft	aloft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	intending	intend	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	1	conj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	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	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|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	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	pestle	pestle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
37	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **raise** | gerund |  | merchant's pestle |  |  |  | with the thought in merchant's mind | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent pestle=Patient with thought=Instrument |
| 2 | **intend** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | the flies |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fly=Theme |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | future | merchant | way |  |  |  | with Flies *= fly* | tree rules |
| 5 | **strike** | past | merchant | merchant's mother |  |  |  | with the pestle | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent mother=Patient with pestle=Instrument |
| 6 | **kill** | past | merchant *not said here* | merchant |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 7 | **mind** |  | merchant |  |  |  |  |  | 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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