---
title: The wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue w… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue with the Grasshopper, nor with anybody else for that matter. Who acts: wise old Owl, tune. 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 12

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The wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue with the Grasshopper, nor with anybody else for that matter.

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**Who acts:** wise old Owl, tune · **What happens:** know, do, argue · **To what, where:** good

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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 (wise old Owl, tune), 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:pg19994:28:12
# text = The wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue with the Grasshopper, nor with anybody else for that matter.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Owl	Owl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	argue	argue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Grasshopper	Grasshopper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	22	cc	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obl	_	_
23	else	else	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | the wise old Owl |  |  |  |  | with anybody; well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **do** | would | tune | no good |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 3 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | to-infinitive | tune *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the Grasshopper | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with grasshopper=Co-Agent |

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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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