---
title: As he crossed a narrow footbridge, he happened to look down and saw… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: As he crossed a narrow footbridge, he happened to look down and saw himself reflected in the quiet water as if in a mirror. Who acts: Dog. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Dog and His Reflection, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Dog and His Reflection, sentence 2

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As he crossed a narrow footbridge, he happened to look down and saw himself reflected in the quiet water as if in a mirror.

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**Who acts:** Dog · **What happens:** cross, happen, look down, see, reflect · **To what, where:** narrow footbridge, Dog, quiet water

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Dog and His Reflection. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dog), 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:pg19994:127:2
# text = As he crossed a narrow footbridge, he happened to look down and saw himself reflected in the quiet water as if in a mirror.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	footbridge	footbridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	down	down	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	reflected	reflect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	xcomp	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | past | Dog | a narrow footbridge |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent footbridge=Patient |
| 2 | **happen** | past | Dog |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **look down** | to-infinitive | Dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **see** | past | Dog *not said here* | Dog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **reflect** | participle | Dog *not said here* |  |  | the quiet water |  | as a mirror | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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