---
title: A Milkmaid had been out to milk the cows and was returning from the… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: A Milkmaid had been out to milk the cows and was returning from the field with the shining milk pail balanced nicely on her head. Who acts: Milkmaid. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Milkmaid and Her Pail, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Milkmaid and Her Pail, sentence 1

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A Milkmaid had been out to milk the cows and was returning from the field with the shining milk pail balanced nicely on her head.

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**Who acts:** Milkmaid · **What happens:** be, return, shine, balance · **To what, where:** field, shining milk pail, head

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Milkmaid and Her Pail. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Milkmaid), 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:pg19994:103:1
# text = A Milkmaid had been out to milk the cows and was returning from the field with the shining milk pail balanced nicely on her head.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Milkmaid	Milkmaid	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	out	out	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	returning	return	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	amod	_	_
19	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	pail	pail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
21	balanced	balance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	nicely	nicely	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | a Milkmaid |  |  |  |  | out *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **return** | past · progressive | a Milkmaid *not said here* |  |  | the field with the shining milk pail |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from field=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **shine** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **balance** | participle |  | the shining milk pail *not said here* |  | Milkmaid's head |  | nicely *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on head=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 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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