---
title: Firmness he flings in the face of the firm; Mallika overcomes kindly… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Firmness he flings in the face of the firm; Mallika overcomes kindly with kindness, Good with good, evil with evil. Who acts: Firmness, Mallika. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 7, sentence 127

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Firmness he flings in the face of the firm; Mallika overcomes kindly with kindness, Good with good, evil with evil.

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**Who acts:** Firmness, Mallika · **What happens:** fling, overcome · **To what, where:** face

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Firmness, Mallika), 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:pg74064:7:132
# text = Firmness he flings in the face of the firm; Mallika overcomes kindly with kindness, Good with good, evil with evil.
1	Firmness	firmness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flings	fling	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	firm	firm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	Mallika	Mallika	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	overcomes	overcome	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	kindness	kindness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	Good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fling** | present | Firmness |  |  | the face of the firm |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in face=Destination |
| 2 | **overcome** | present | Mallika |  |  |  |  | with kindness; kindly *property* | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |

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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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