---
title: The stones were flying thick and fast and the Boys were enjoying the… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The stones were flying thick and fast and the Boys were enjoying themselves very much; but the poor Frogs in the pond were trembling with fear. Who acts: stones, Boys, poor Frogs. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Boys and the Frogs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Boys and the Frogs, sentence 3

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The stones were flying thick and fast and the Boys were enjoying themselves very much; but the poor Frogs in the pond were trembling with fear.

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**Who acts:** stones, Boys, poor Frogs · **What happens:** fly, be, enjoy, tremble · **To what, where:** Boys

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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 (stones, Boys, poor Frogs), 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:pg19994:32:3
# text = The stones were flying thick and fast and the Boys were enjoying themselves very much; but the poor Frogs in the pond were trembling with fear.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	amod	_	_
5	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	fast	fast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Boys	Boy	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	enjoying	enjoy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
13	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	much	much	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	Frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the stones |  |  |  |  | thick *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | the stones *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **enjoy** | past · progressive | the Boys | Boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer themselves=Stimulus |
| 5 | **tremble** | past · progressive | the poor Frogs in the pond |  |  |  |  | with fear | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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