---
title: Smeared with the strongest poison Was the die the man swallowed, but… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Smeared with the strongest poison Was the die the man swallowed, but knew it not. Who acts: strongest poison, man. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 58

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Smeared with the strongest poison Was the die the man swallowed, but knew it not.

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**Who acts:** strongest poison, man · **What happens:** smear, be, swallow, not know · **To what, where:** die, poison

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (strongest poison, man), 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:pg74064:14:62
# text = Smeared with the strongest poison Was the die the man swallowed, but knew it not.
1	Smeared	smear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
2	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	strongest	strong	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	die	die	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smear** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the strongest poison |  |  |  |  | with the die | tree rules |
| 3 | **swallow** | past | the man | the die *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent die=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **know** | past | the man *not said here* | poison |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

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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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