---
title: Without being asked, the Lion placed himself at the head of the feas… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: Without being asked, the Lion placed himself at the head of the feast to do the carving, and, with a great show of fairness, began to count the guests. Who acts: Lion, great show. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lion's Share, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Lion's Share, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Without being asked, the Lion placed himself at the head of the feast to do the carving, and, with a great show of fairness, began to count the guests.

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**Who acts:** Lion, great show · **What happens:** ask, place, do, begin, count, show · **To what, where:** Wolf, head, carving, guests, fairness

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lion's Share. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, great show), 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:pg19994:141:3
# text = Without being asked, the Lion placed himself at the head of the feast to do the carving, and, with a great show of fairness, began to count the guests.
1	Without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	feast	feast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	carving	carving	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	show	show	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	fairness	fairness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
29	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	count	count	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund · passive | the Lion *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V» |
| 2 | **place** | past | the Lion | Wolf |  | the head of the feast |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent himself=Theme at head=Destination |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | the Lion *not said here* | the carving |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent carving=Eventuality |
| 4 | **begin** | past | a great show of fairness |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **count** | to-infinitive | a great show of fairness *not said here* | the guests |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent guest=Theme |
| 6 | **show** |  |  | fairness |  |  |  |  | nom show «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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