---
title: His limbs could no longer bear him, and the King of Beasts was very… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: His limbs could no longer bear him, and the King of Beasts was very pitiful indeed as he lay gasping on the ground, about to die. Who acts: limbs, King, Lion. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Old Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Old Lion, sentence 3

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His limbs could no longer bear him, and the King of Beasts was very pitiful indeed as he lay gasping on the ground, about to die.

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**Who acts:** limbs, King, Lion · **What happens:** bear, be, lie, gasp, die · **To what, where:** Lion, ground

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Old Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (limbs, King, Lion), 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:pg19994:116:3
# text = His limbs could no longer bear him, and the King of Beasts was very pitiful indeed as he lay gasping on the ground, about to die.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	limbs	limb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	no	no	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
6	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Beasts	Beasts	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	pitiful	pitiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
17	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
21	gasping	gasp	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	xcomp	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	about	about	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | could | Lion's limbs | Lion |  |  |  | long *property* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | the King of Beasts |  |  |  |  | pitiful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **lie** | past | Lion |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **gasp** | gerund | Lion *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **die** | to-infinitive | Lion's limbs *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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