---
title: Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the tail… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the tail and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn Ass would not yield and pulled with all his might. Who acts: way, master, stubborn Ass. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and His Driver, with its dependency tree 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/17/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Aesop for Children](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/) / [The Ass and His Driver](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/17/) / 3

# The Aesop for Children, The Ass and His Driver, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the tail and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn Ass would not yield and pulled with all his might.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** way, master, stubborn Ass · **What happens:** be, leap over, catch, try, pull back, not yield · **To what, where:** way

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (way, master, stubborn Ass), 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:pg19994:17:3
# text = Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the tail and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn Ass would not yield and pulled with all his might.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	leap	leap	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	over	over	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	back	back	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	stubborn	stubborn	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	yield	yield	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	conj	_	_
33	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
34	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	36	det:predet	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | way |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **leap over** | to-infinitive | way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | past | way's master | way |  |  |  | by the tail | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **try** | past | way's master *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **pull back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | way's master *not said here* | way |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent he=Result |
| 6 | **not** **yield** | would | the stubborn Ass |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **pull** | participle | the stubborn Ass *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/17/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/17/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Ass and His Driver](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/17/)