---
title: Continuing in this wise, they killed each other off until there were… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Continuing in this wise, they killed each other off until there were only two men left. Who acts: Riches, two men. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 126

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Continuing in this wise, they killed each other off until there were only two men left.

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**Who acts:** Riches, two men · **What happens:** continue, kill, be, leave · **To what, where:** wise, each, two men

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Riches, two men), 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:pg74064:8:128
# text = Continuing in this wise, they killed each other off until there were only two men left.
1	Continuing	continue	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
4	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	7	obj	_	_
9	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	fixed	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
11	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
17	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **continue** | gerund | Riches *= rich* *not said here* |  |  | wise  this |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** | past | Riches *= rich* | each |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent each=Theme |
| 3 | **be** | past | two men |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **leave** | participle |  | two men *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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