---
title: At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before. Who acts: Ass, ford, disconsolate Ass. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and the Load of Salt
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Ass and the Load of Salt, sentence 8

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At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.

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**Who acts:** Ass, ford, disconsolate Ass · **What happens:** tumble over, scramble, be, drag · **To what, where:** ford, feet, disconsolate Ass, Ass, load

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and the Load of Salt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ass, ford, disconsolate Ass), 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:pg19994:38:8
# text = At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	ford	ford	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Ass	Ass	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	again	again	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	tumbled	tumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	over	over	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	scrambled	scramble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	disconsolate	disconsolate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	dragged	drag	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obj	_	_
28	homeward	homeward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	under	under	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	load	load	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl:unmarked	_	_
34	heavier	heavy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	parataxis	_	_
35	than	than	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	before	before	ADV	RB	_	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tumble over** | past | the Ass |  |  | the ford | again | over *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **scramble** | past · perfect | Ass |  |  | Ass's feet |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to foot=Destination |
| 3 | **is a** | past | ford | a disconsolate Ass |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **drag** | past | a disconsolate Ass | Ass |  | a load |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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