---
title: As they went along, picking up provisions on the way--a stray mouse… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: As they went along, picking up provisions on the way--a stray mouse here, a fat chicken there--they began an argument to while away the time between bites. Who acts: Cat. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cat and the Fox, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Cat and the Fox, sentence 2

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As they went along, picking up provisions on the way--a stray mouse here, a fat chicken there--they began an argument to while away the time between bites.

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**Who acts:** Cat · **What happens:** go along, pick up, begin, while away · **To what, where:** provisions, way, argument

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cat 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 (Cat), 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:pg19994:114:2
# text = As they went along, picking up provisions on the way--a stray mouse here, a fat chicken there--they began an argument to while away the time between bites.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
4	along	along	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	picking	pick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	provisions	provision	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	stray	stray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	_
16	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	chicken	chicken	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
21	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	argument	argument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	while	while	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
29	away	away	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	between	between	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	bites	bite	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go along** | past | Cat |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **pick up** | gerund | Cat *not said here* | provisions |  | the way |  | a fat chicken *obl* | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent provision=Topic |
| 3 | **begin** | past | Cat | a argument |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **while away** | to-infinitive | Cat *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |

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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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