---
title: As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life. Who acts: rule, Lamb, Wolf, excuse. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aes
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Wolf and the Lamb, sentence 4

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As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life.

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**Who acts:** rule, Lamb, Wolf, excuse · **What happens:** snap up, make, look, feel, have, take · **To what, where:** such delicious morsels, bones, kind, life

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf and the Lamb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rule, Lamb, Wolf, excuse), 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:pg19994:47:4
# text = As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	rule	rule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod:desc	_	_
5	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
6	snapped	snap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	morsels	morsel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
13	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	about	about	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	Lamb	Lamb	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	ccomp	_	_
35	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	36	det	_	_
36	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	excuse	excuse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
40	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
41	taking	take	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	acl	_	_
42	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **snap up** | past | a rule | such delicious morsels |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location morsel=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | gerund | a rule *not said here* | any bones |  |  |  | about rule | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset bone=Product |
| 3 | **look** | past | this Lamb |  |  |  |  | helpless *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **feel** | past | the Wolf |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | ought | Wolf | some kind of a excuse |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kind=Patient |
| 6 | **take** | gerund | a excuse *not said here* | Lamb's life |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |

<!-- .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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