---
title: He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold o… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds. Who acts: Tortoise, two Ducks, Ducks. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Tortoise and the Ducks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Tortoise and the Ducks, sentence 12

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He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.

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**Who acts:** Tortoise, two Ducks, Ducks · **What happens:** seize, take, sail up, hold · **To what, where:** stick, hold, clouds

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Tortoise and the Ducks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tortoise, two Ducks, Ducks), 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:pg19994:4:12
# text = He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	Ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nmod	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
20	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	away	away	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	sailed	sail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past | Tortoise | the stick |  |  |  | with Tortoise's teeth; firmly *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | past | the two Ducks | hold of hold |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument hold=Theme one=Destination |
| 3 | **sail up** | past | Ducks *= duck* |  |  | the clouds |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent toward cloud=Trajectory |
| 4 | **hold** |  |  | hold |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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