---
title: One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about i… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat. Who acts: family, grain, starving Grasshopper. A sen
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Ants and the Grasshopper, sentence 1

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One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

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**Who acts:** family, grain, starving Grasshopper · **What happens:** bustle, dry out, store up, starve, come up, beg · **To what, where:** warm sunshine, grain, Ants

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ants 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 (family, grain, starving Grasshopper), 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:pg19994:34:1
# text = One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
2	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	autumn	autumn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	bustling	bustle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
13	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	sunshine	sunshine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	drying	dry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	stored	store	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	during	during	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
31	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	42	advmod	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	amod	_	_
34	Grasshopper	Grasshopper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	fiddle	fiddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	appos	_	_
38	under	under	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
42	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
43	up	up	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
45	humbly	humbly	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	begged	beg	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	conj	_	_
47	for	for	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	bite	bite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
50	to	to	PART	TO	_	51	mark	_	_
51	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bustle** | past · progressive | a family of Ants |  |  | the warm sunshine | day | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sunshine=Trajectory |
| 2 | **dry out** | gerund | a family of Ants *not said here* | the grain |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient grain=Result |
| 3 | **store up** | past · perfect · passive | the grain *not said here* | Ants *= ant* |  |  | summer |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **starve** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come up** | past | a starving Grasshopper |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **beg** *speech: request* | participle | a starving Grasshopper *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a bite; humbly *property* | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for bite=Topic |
| 7 | **eat** | to-infinitive | a starving Grasshopper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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