---
title: The Boys amused themselves by throwing stones into the pond so as to… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Boys amused themselves by throwing stones into the pond so as to make them skip on top of the water. Who acts: Boys. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Boys and the Frogs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Boys and the Frogs, sentence 2

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The Boys amused themselves by throwing stones into the pond so as to make them skip on top of the water.

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**Who acts:** Boys · **What happens:** amuse, throw, make, skip · **To what, where:** Boys, stones, pond, top

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Boys and the Frogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Boys), 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:pg19994:32:2
# text = The Boys amused themselves by throwing stones into the pond so as to make them skip on top of the water.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Boys	Boy	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	amused	amuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
7	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	skip	skip	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **amuse** | past | the Boys | Boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus themselves=Experiencer |
| 2 | **throw** | gerund | the Boys *not said here* | stones |  |  |  | into the pond *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer stone=Theme into pond=Result |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | the Boys *not said here* | Boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **skip** | infinitive | Boys *= boy* *not said here* |  |  | top of the water |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on top=Trajectory |

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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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