---
title: "Son," said the Boy's mother, when she had comforted him, "the next… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: "Son," said the Boy's mother, when she had comforted him, "the next time you come near a Nettle, grasp it firmly, and it will be as soft as silk." Who acts: Son, she, you, Nettle. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Boy and the Nettle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Boy and the Nettle, sentence 2

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"Son," said the Boy's mother, when she had comforted him, "the next time you come near a Nettle, grasp it firmly, and it will be as soft as silk."

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**Who acts:** Son, she, you, Nettle · **What happens:** say, comfort, come, grasp, be · **To what, where:** mother, Boy, next time, Nettle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Boy and the Nettle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Son, she, you, Nettle), 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:pg19994:115:2
# text = "Son," said the Boy's mother, when she had comforted him, "the next time you come near a Nettle, grasp it firmly, and it will be as soft as silk."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Son	Son	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	comforted	comfort	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	ccomp	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	near	near	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Nettle	nettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
27	grasp	grasp	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
34	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	cop	_	_
35	as	as	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
37	as	as	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Son | the Boy's mother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **comfort** | past · perfect | she | Boy |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **come** *in a quote* | present | you | the next time *not said here* |  | a Nettle |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location time=Theme |
| 4 | **grasp** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | Nettle |  |  | time | firmly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | future | Nettle |  |  |  |  | as silk; soft *property* | 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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