---
title: But instead of thinking, he dropped his bone and sprang at the Dog i… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But instead of thinking, he dropped his bone and sprang at the Dog in the river, only to find himself swimming for dear life to reach the shore. 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 5

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But instead of thinking, he dropped his bone and sprang at the Dog in the river, only to find himself swimming for dear life to reach the shore.

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**Who acts:** Dog · **What happens:** think, drop, find, swim, reach · **To what, where:** bone, river, Dog, shore

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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:pg19994:127:5
# text = But instead of thinking, he dropped his bone and sprang at the Dog in the river, only to find himself swimming for dear life to reach the shore.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	4	mark	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	2	fixed	_	_
4	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	sprang	sprang	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	xcomp	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | Dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **drop** | past | Dog | Dog's bone and sprang |  | the river |  | at the Dog | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent bone=Theme at dog=Destination in river=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **find** | to-infinitive | Dog *not said here* | Dog |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent himself=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 4 | **swim** | gerund | Dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for dear life | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **reach** | to-infinitive | Dog *not said here* | the shore |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent shore=Theme |

<!-- .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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