---
title: He could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the q… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: He could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the quickest way down seemed to be over the edge of the nearest cliff. Who acts: He, quickest way. 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 2

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He could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the quickest way down seemed to be over the edge of the nearest cliff.

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**Who acts:** He, quickest way · **What happens:** see, seem, be · **To what, where:** stall, foot, him, edge

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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 (He, quickest 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:pg19994:17:2
# text = He could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the quickest way down seemed to be over the edge of the nearest cliff.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	stall	stall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	quickest	quick	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	18	amod	_	_
18	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	down	down	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
23	over	over	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	xcomp	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	29	amod	_	_
29	cliff	cliff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | He | his stall |  | the foot of the mountain |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer stall=Stimulus |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the quickest way |  | him *= he* |  |  | down *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive | the quickest way *not said here* |  |  | the edge |  | of the nearest cliff | tree rules |

<!-- .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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