---
title: But you are approaching decked with water-lilies both blue and white… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: But you are approaching decked with water-lilies both blue and white, with lotus-flowers both red and white in your hands, chewing the fibrous stalks of water-lilies, smeared with mud, with drops of water streaming from you. Who acts: drops. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Bur
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 15, sentence 44

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But you are approaching decked with water-lilies both blue and white, with lotus-flowers both red and white in your hands, chewing the fibrous stalks of water-lilies, smeared with mud, with drops of water streaming from you.

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**Who acts:** drops · **What happens:** deck, chew, smear, stream · **To what, where:** you, fibrous stalks

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drops), 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:pg74064:15:44
# text = But you are approaching decked with water-lilies both blue and white, with lotus-flowers both red and white in your hands, chewing the fibrous stalks of water-lilies, smeared with mud, with drops of water streaming from you.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	decked	deck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	lilies	lily	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
10	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc:preconj	_	_
11	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	lotus	lotus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc:preconj	_	_
20	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	chewing	chew	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	fibrous	fibrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	stalks	stalk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	lilies	lily	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
36	smeared	smear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	acl	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	drops	drop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nmod	_	_
44	streaming	stream	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	41	acl	_	_
45	from	from	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **deck** | present · passive |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |
| 2 | **chew** | gerund |  | the fibrous stalks of water lilies |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stalk=Patient |
| 3 | **smear** | participle |  | the fibrous stalks of water lilies *not said here* |  |  |  | with mud; with drops of water | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent with mud=Theme |
| 4 | **stream** | gerund | drops of water *not said here* |  |  |  |  | from you | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP.theme V PP.source»: agent=Theme from you=Source |

<!-- .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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