---
title: A Cock was busily scratching and scraping about to find something to… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: A Cock was busily scratching and scraping about to find something to eat for himself and his family, when he happened to turn up a precious jewel that had been lost by its owner. Who acts: Cock, owner. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cock and the Jewel, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Cock and the Jewel, sentence 1

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A Cock was busily scratching and scraping about to find something to eat for himself and his family, when he happened to turn up a precious jewel that had been lost by its owner.

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**Who acts:** Cock, owner · **What happens:** scratch, scrape, find, eat, happen, turn up · **To what, where:** something, precious jewel

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cock and the Jewel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cock, owner), 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:pg19994:41:1
# text = A Cock was busily scratching and scraping about to find something to eat for himself and his family, when he happened to turn up a precious jewel that had been lost by its owner.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	busily	busily	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	scratching	scratch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	scraping	scrape	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
8	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
11	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	up	up	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	jewel	jewel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	owner	owner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scratch** | past · progressive | a Cock |  |  |  |  | busily *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **scrape** | gerund | a Cock *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **find** | to-infinitive | a Cock *not said here* | something |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Topic |
| 4 | **eat** | to-infinitive | a Cock *not said here* | something *not said here* |  |  |  | for Cock | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **happen** | past | Cock |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **turn up** | to-infinitive | Cock *not said here* | a precious jewel |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location jewel=Theme |
| 7 | **lose** | past · perfect · passive | jewel's owner | a precious jewel |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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