---
title: The next instant he flew at the Lion and stung him sharply on the no… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The next instant he flew at the Lion and stung him sharply on the nose. Who acts: next instant. 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 4

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The next instant he flew at the Lion and stung him sharply on the nose.

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**Who acts:** next instant · **What happens:** fly, sting · **To what, where:** Lion

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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 (next instant), 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:pg19994:39:4
# text = The next instant he flew at the Lion and stung him sharply on the nose.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	stung	sting	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	sharply	sharply	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | the next instant |  |  |  |  | at the Lion | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at lion=Location |
| 2 | **sting** | past | the next instant *not said here* | Lion |  |  |  | on the nose; sharply *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Experiencer on nose=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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