---
title: But just as he cast the stone, the Ant stung him in the heel, so tha… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But just as he cast the stone, the Ant stung him in the heel, so that the pain made him miss his aim, and the startled Dove flew to safety in a distant wood. Who acts: Dove, Ant, pain, startled Dove. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ant and the Dove, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Ant and the Dove, sentence 5

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But just as he cast the stone, the Ant stung him in the heel, so that the pain made him miss his aim, and the startled Dove flew to safety in a distant wood.

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**Who acts:** Dove, Ant, pain, startled Dove · **What happens:** cast, sting, make, miss, startle, fly · **To what, where:** stone, Dove, heel, aim, distant wood

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ant and the Dove. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dove, Ant, pain, startled Dove), 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:pg19994:135:5
# text = But just as he cast the stone, the Ant stung him in the heel, so that the pain made him miss his aim, and the startled Dove flew to safety in a distant wood.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	cast	cast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Ant	Ant	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	stung	sting	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	heel	heel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	21	mark	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	miss	miss	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	aim	aim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	startled	startle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	amod	_	_
30	Dove	Dove	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cast** | past | Dove | the stone |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Product |
| 2 | **sting** | past | the Ant | Dove |  | the heel |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **make** | past | the pain | Dove |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **miss** | infinitive | Dove *not said here* | Dove's aim |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer aim=Stimulus |
| 5 | **startle** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **fly** | past | the startled Dove |  |  | a distant wood |  | to safety | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent in wood=Location |
| 7 | **aim** |  | Dove |  |  |  |  |  | nom aim «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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