---
title: But it was hard for him to live alone, and at last he thought of a p… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was hard for him to live alone, and at last he thought of a plan that would perhaps help him out of his trouble. Who acts: Fox, plan. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox Without a Tail, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Fox Without a Tail, sentence 4

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But it was hard for him to live alone, and at last he thought of a plan that would perhaps help him out of his trouble.

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**Who acts:** Fox, plan · **What happens:** be, live, think, help, trouble · **To what, where:** last, Fox, trouble

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox Without a Tail. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox, plan), 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:pg19994:111:4
# text = But it was hard for him to live alone, and at last he thought of a plan that would perhaps help him out of his trouble.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
9	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	out	out	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **live** | to-infinitive | Fox |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Fox | last *not said here* |  |  |  | of a plan | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot last=Theme |
| 4 | **help** | would | a plan |  | Fox | Fox's trouble |  | perhaps *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **trouble** |  | Fox |  |  |  |  |  | nom trouble «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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