---
title: There was much fluttering and trying out of wings that afternoon, an… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: There was much fluttering and trying out of wings that afternoon, and at sunrise next day, when the Farmer and his son cut down the grain, they found an empty nest. Who acts: Farmer, son. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lark and Her Young Ones, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Lark and Her Young Ones, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was much fluttering and trying out of wings that afternoon, and at sunrise next day, when the Farmer and his son cut down the grain, they found an empty nest.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Farmer, son · **What happens:** be, flutter, try out, son, cut down, find · **To what, where:** wings, grain, empty nest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lark and Her Young Ones. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Farmer, son), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg19994:130:17
# text = There was much fluttering and trying out of wings that afternoon, and at sunrise next day, when the Farmer and his son cut down the grain, they found an empty nest.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	fluttering	flutter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	det	_	_
11	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	sunrise	sunrise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
16	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Farmer	Farmer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
25	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
26	down	down	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **flutter** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **try out** | gerund |  | wings  that afternoon |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Theme |
| 4 | **son** |  | the Farmer |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **cut down** | participle | man's son *not said here* | the grain |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **find** | past | Farmer | a empty nest |  |  | sunrise |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nest=Topic |

<!-- .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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