---
title: The slightest breeze that ruffles the surface of the water makes you… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The slightest breeze that ruffles the surface of the water makes you bow your heads, while I, the mighty Oak, stand upright and firm before the howling tempest." Who acts: slightest breeze, you, I. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Oak and the Reeds, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Oak and the Reeds, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The slightest breeze that ruffles the surface of the water makes you bow your heads, while I, the mighty Oak, stand upright and firm before the howling tempest."

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**Who acts:** slightest breeze, you, I · **What happens:** ruffle, make, bow, oak, stand · **To what, where:** surface, you, heads, howling tempest

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Oak and the Reeds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slightest breeze, you, I), 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:pg19994:30:5
# text = The slightest breeze that ruffles the surface of the water makes you bow your heads, while I, the mighty Oak, stand upright and firm before the howling tempest."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	slightest	slight	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	breeze	breeze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	ruffles	ruffle	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	bow	bow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	Oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
25	upright	upright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	firm	firm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
28	before	before	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	howling	howling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	tempest	tempest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ruffle** | present | the slightest breeze | the surface of the water |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus surface=Experiencer |
| 2 | **make** | present | the slightest breeze | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bow** | infinitive | you *not said here* | your heads |  |  |  |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Topic |
| 4 | **oak** |  | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **stand** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | the howling tempest |  | upright *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before tempest=Location |

<!-- .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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