---
title: An Ass was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side,… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: An Ass was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path. Who acts: road, he. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and His Driver, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Ass and His Driver, sentence 1

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An Ass was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path.

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**Who acts:** road, he · **What happens:** drive, lead, take, choose · **To what, where:** Ass, road, mountain side, silly head, own path

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and His Driver. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (road, he), 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:pg19994:17:1
# text = An Ass was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	along	along	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	leading	lead	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drive** | past · passive |  | a Ass |  | a road |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme along road=Trajectory |
| 2 | **lead** | gerund | a road *not said here* |  |  | the mountain side |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent down side=Destination |
| 3 | **take** | past | he | Ass |  | his silly head |  | suddenly *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme into head=Destination |
| 4 | **choose** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | his own path |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Theme |

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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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