---
title: First he whirled 'round and 'round like a top, then he hopped up and… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: First he whirled 'round and 'round like a top, then he hopped up and down, cutting all sorts of strange capers. Who acts: Fox. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox and the Pheasants, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Fox and the Pheasants, sentence 3

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First he whirled 'round and 'round like a top, then he hopped up and down, cutting all sorts of strange capers.

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**Who acts:** Fox · **What happens:** whirl, hop up, cut, sort · **To what, where:** sorts, strange capers

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox and the Pheasants. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox), 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:pg19994:117:3
# text = First he whirled 'round and 'round like a top, then he hopped up and down, cutting all sorts of strange capers.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	whirled	whirl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	round	round	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	round	round	ADV	RB	_	5	conj	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	hopped	hop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	up	up	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
21	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	capers	caper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whirl** | past | Fox |  |  |  |  | like a top; first, round *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hop up** | past | Fox |  |  |  | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **cut** | gerund | Fox *not said here* | all sorts of strange capers |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sort=Product |
| 4 | **sort** |  |  | strange capers |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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