---
title: "Do you think," he said spitefully to the Lion, "that I am afraid of… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: "Do you think," he said spitefully to the Lion, "that I am afraid of you because they call you king?" Who acts: Lion, Gnat, that, they. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lion and the Gnat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Lion and the Gnat, sentence 3

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"Do you think," he said spitefully to the Lion, "that I am afraid of you because they call you king?"

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**Who acts:** Lion, Gnat, that, they · **What happens:** think, say, be, call · **To what, where:** Lion, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lion and the Gnat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, Gnat, that, they), 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:pg19994:39:3
# text = "Do you think," he said spitefully to the Lion, "that I am afraid of you because they call you king?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	spitefully	spitefully	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present · do-support | the Lion *= lion* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Gnat |  | the Lion |  |  | spitefully *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to lion=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | that |  |  |  |  | of you; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **call** *in a quote* | present | they |  | you |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

<!-- .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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