---
title: The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at l… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at last came to a standstill when one of the wheels sank to the hub in a rut. Who acts: horses, one. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Hercules and the Wagoner, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, Hercules and the Wagoner, sentence 2

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The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at last came to a standstill when one of the wheels sank to the hub in a rut.

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**Who acts:** horses, one · **What happens:** drag, come, sink · **To what, where:** load, deep mud, last, rut

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Hercules and the Wagoner. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horses, one), 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:pg19994:11:2
# text = The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at last came to a standstill when one of the wheels sank to the hub in a rut.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	drag	drag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	load	load	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	through	through	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obl	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	standstill	standstill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	wheels	wheel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
25	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	hub	hub	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	rut	rut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drag** | could | the horses | the load |  | the deep mud |  | hardly *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent load=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past |  |  |  | last |  | to a standstill | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to standstill=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **sink** | past | one of the wheels |  |  | a rut |  | to the hub | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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