---
title: He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along. Who acts: Tortoise, little short legs. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Tortoise and the Ducks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Tortoise and the Ducks, sentence 6

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He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

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**Who acts:** Tortoise, little short legs · **What happens:** want, see, be, drag · **To what, where:** world, back, Tortoise

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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, little short legs), 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:pg19994:4:6
# text = He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	drag	drag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	along	along	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | Tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Tortoise *not said here* | the world |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer world=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | past | Tortoise |  |  | Tortoise's back and little short legs |  | with a house | tree rules |
| 4 | **drag** | could | little short legs | Tortoise |  |  |  | along, hardly *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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