---
title: The Wolf would gladly have eaten him then and there, but the House D… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Wolf would gladly have eaten him then and there, but the House Dog looked strong enough to leave his marks should he try it. Who acts: Wolf, House Dog. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf and the House Dog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Wolf and the House Dog, sentence 4

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The Wolf would gladly have eaten him then and there, but the House Dog looked strong enough to leave his marks should he try it.

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**Who acts:** Wolf, House Dog · **What happens:** eat, look, leave, try, mark · **To what, where:** fat, marks, little

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf and the House Dog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wolf, House Dog), 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:pg19994:107:4
# text = The Wolf would gladly have eaten him then and there, but the House Dog looked strong enough to leave his marks should he try it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	gladly	gladly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
6	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	House	House	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	Dog	Dog	PROPN	NNP	_	16	nsubj	_	_
16	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
17	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
18	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	marks	mark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | would · perfect | the Wolf | fat |  |  | then | gladly *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 2 | **look** | past | the House Dog |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **leave** | to-infinitive | the House Dog *not said here* | Wolf's marks |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mark=Theme |
| 4 | **try** | should | Wolf | little |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 5 | **mark** |  | Wolf |  |  |  |  |  | nom mark «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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