---
title: But the Grasshopper answered saucily that he had as much right to hi… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Grasshopper answered saucily that he had as much right to his place in the sun as the Owl had to her place in the old oak. Who acts: Grasshopper, Owl. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Owl and the Grasshopper, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Owl and the Grasshopper, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the Grasshopper answered saucily that he had as much right to his place in the sun as the Owl had to her place in the old oak.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Grasshopper, Owl · **What happens:** answer, have · **To what, where:** much right

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Owl and the Grasshopper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Grasshopper, Owl), 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:pg19994:28:10
# text = But the Grasshopper answered saucily that he had as much right to his place in the sun as the Owl had to her place in the old oak.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Grasshopper	Grasshopper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	saucily	saucily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Owl	Owl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the Grasshopper |  |  |  |  | saucily *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **have** | past | Grasshopper | much right |  |  |  | to Grasshopper's place in the sun | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Patient |
| 3 | **have** | past | the Owl |  |  |  |  | to Owl's place in the old oak | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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