---
title: Now there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard t… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: Now there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard to please as she grew older, especially if anything disturbed her daily slumbers. Who acts: certain old Owl, Owl, anything. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Owl and the Grasshopper, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Owl and the Grasshopper, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard to please as she grew older, especially if anything disturbed her daily slumbers.

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**Who acts:** certain old Owl, Owl, anything · **What happens:** be, become, please, grow, disturb, slumber · **To what, where:** daily slumbers

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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 (certain old Owl, Owl, anything), 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:pg19994:28:4
# text = Now there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard to please as she grew older, especially if anything disturbed her daily slumbers.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Owl	Owl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	cross	cross	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	please	please	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
20	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	25	nsubj	_	_
25	disturbed	disturb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	daily	daily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	slumbers	slumber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a certain old Owl |  |  | there | now |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | past · perfect | a certain old Owl |  |  |  |  | cross *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **please** | to-infinitive | a certain old Owl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **grow** | past | Owl |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **disturb** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | anything | Owl's daily slumbers |  |  |  | especially *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus slumber=Experiencer |
| 6 | **slumber** |  | Owl |  |  |  |  |  | nom slumber «state intransitive»: poss=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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