---
title: The Lion replied that he was very ill indeed, and asked the Fox to s… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Lion replied that he was very ill indeed, and asked the Fox to step in for a moment. Who acts: Lion, Fox. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Old Lion and the Fox, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Old Lion and the Fox, sentence 6

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The Lion replied that he was very ill indeed, and asked the Fox to step in for a moment.

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**Who acts:** Lion, Fox · **What happens:** reply, be, ask, step in · **To what, where:** Fox

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Old Lion and the Fox. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, Fox), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg19994:100:6
# text = The Lion replied that he was very ill indeed, and asked the Fox to step in for a moment.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
9	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	step	step	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | Fox |  |  |  |  | ill, indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Lion *not said here* |  | the Fox |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent fox=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **step in** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Lion *not said here* |  |  |  | moment |  | vn run-51.3.2 «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 Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (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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