---
title: As the Ass walked along, the people bowed their heads reverently or… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: As the Ass walked along, the people bowed their heads reverently or fell on their knees, and the Ass thought the honor was being paid to himself. Who acts: Ass, people. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass Carrying the Image, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Ass Carrying the Image, sentence 3

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As the Ass walked along, the people bowed their heads reverently or fell on their knees, and the Ass thought the honor was being paid to himself.

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**Who acts:** Ass, people · **What happens:** walk, bow, fall, think, pay · **To what, where:** heads, knees, honor, Ass · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass Carrying the Image. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ass, people), 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:pg19994:35:3
# text = As the Ass walked along, the people bowed their heads reverently or fell on their knees, and the Ass thought the honor was being paid to himself.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	along	along	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	reverently	reverently	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Ass	Ass	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	honor	honor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
26	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	paid	pay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	ccomp	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past | the Ass |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bow** | past | the people | people's heads |  |  |  | reverently *property* | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Topic |
| 3 | **fall** | past | the people *not said here* |  |  | people's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the Ass |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **pay** | past · passive |  | the honor | Ass |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Asset |

<!-- .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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