---
title: A great many persons in Rhodes had seen him do it and would prove th… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: A great many persons in Rhodes had seen him do it and would prove that what he told was true. Who acts: great many persons, man. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Leap At Rhodes, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Leap At Rhodes, sentence 4

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A great many persons in Rhodes had seen him do it and would prove that what he told was true.

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**Who acts:** great many persons, man · **What happens:** see, do, prove, tell, be · **To what, where:** great many persons, leap · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Leap At Rhodes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great many persons, man), 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:pg19994:40:4
# text = A great many persons in Rhodes had seen him do it and would prove that what he told was true.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Rhodes	Rhodes	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past · perfect · passive |  | a great many persons in Rhodes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | infinitive | a great many persons in Rhodes *not said here* | leap |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 3 | **prove** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |

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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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