---
title: Though the task they had to do was very light compared with that of… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: Though the task they had to do was very light compared with that of the Oxen, they creaked and groaned at every turn. Who acts: Wheels, task. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Oxen and the Wheels, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/18/4/)

<!-- 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 Oxen and the Wheels](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/18/) / 4

# The Aesop for Children, The Oxen and the Wheels, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Though the task they had to do was very light compared with that of the Oxen, they creaked and groaned at every turn.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Wheels, task · **What happens:** have, do, be, compare, creak, groan · **To what, where:** task

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Oxen and the Wheels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wheels, task), 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:pg19994:18:4
# text = Though the task they had to do was very light compared with that of the Oxen, they creaked and groaned at every turn.
1	Though	though	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
11	compared	compare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Oxen	Oxen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	creaked	creak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	groaned	groan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Wheels *= wheel* | the task *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | the task *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | though the task; light *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **compare** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with that | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Patient with that=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **creak** | past | Wheels *= wheel* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **groan** | past | Wheels *= wheel* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at every turn | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Agent at turn=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/18/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/18/5/)
- ↑ back to [The Oxen and the Wheels](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/18/)