---
title: One day, a long time ago, an old Miller and his Son were on their wa… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, a long time ago, an old Miller and his Son were on their way to market with an Ass which they hoped to sell. Who acts: One day, way. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Miller, His Son, and the Ass, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Miller, His Son, and the Ass, sentence 1

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One day, a long time ago, an old Miller and his Son were on their way to market with an Ass which they hoped to sell.

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**Who acts:** One day, way · **What happens:** be, hope, sell · **To what, where:** way

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Miller, His Son, and the Ass. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (One day, way), 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:pg19994:134:1
# text = One day, a long time ago, an old Miller and his Son were on their way to market with an Ass which they hoped to sell.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
7	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Miller	Miller	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	Son	Son	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	hoped	hope	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | One day and a long time |  |  | Miller's way |  | market with a Ass *nmod* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hope** | past | Miller's way |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **sell** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Miller's way *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: 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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