---
title: But before starting out he made a vow to Jupiter that if he would he… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But before starting out he made a vow to Jupiter that if he would help him find the thief he would offer a fat Calf as a sacrifice. Who acts: Shepherd, Jupiter. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Shepherd and the Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Shepherd and the Lion, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But before starting out he made a vow to Jupiter that if he would help him find the thief he would offer a fat Calf as a sacrifice.

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**Who acts:** Shepherd, Jupiter · **What happens:** start out, make, help, find, offer · **To what, where:** vow, Jupiter, thief, fat Calf

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Shepherd and the Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Shepherd, Jupiter), 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:pg19994:126:4
# text = But before starting out he made a vow to Jupiter that if he would help him find the thief he would offer a fat Calf as a sacrifice.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
3	starting	start	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	vow	vow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Jupiter	Jupiter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	offer	offer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	Calf	calf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start out** | gerund | Shepherd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **make** | past | Shepherd | a vow |  |  |  | to Jupiter | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vow=Product |
| 3 | **help** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | Shepherd | Jupiter |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 4 | **find** | infinitive | Jupiter *not said here* | the thief |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thief=Topic |
| 5 | **offer** | would | Shepherd | a fat Calf |  |  |  | as a sacrifice | vn volunteer-95.4 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent calf=Pivot as sacrifice=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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