---
title: By employing wrong means, for no reason at all, seeking gain for the… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: By employing wrong means, for no reason at all, seeking gain for themselves, these thieves, like our teacher, must all have come to a fearful end indeed!” Who acts: employing, reason. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 8, sentence 161

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By employing wrong means, for no reason at all, seeking gain for themselves, these thieves, like our teacher, must all have come to a fearful end indeed!”

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**Who acts:** employing, reason · **What happens:** employ, mean, seek, come · **To what, where:** reason, all, fearful end · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (employing, reason), 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:pg74064:8:163
# text = By employing wrong means, for no reason at all, seeking gain for themselves, these thieves, like our teacher, must all have come to a fearful end indeed!”
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	employing	employ	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	csubj	_	_
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
4	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	det	_	_
8	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
13	gain	again	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	all	all	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
27	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **employ** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | wrong *property* | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mean** | present | employing | no reason and this thieves like our teacher |  | all |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic |
| 3 | **seek** | gerund | no reason and this thieves like our teacher *not said here* |  |  |  | again | for besides *= beside* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for themselves=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | must · perfect | employing *not said here* |  |  |  | to a fearful end | all, indeed *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to end=Initial\_Location |

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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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