---
title: The Fox one day thought of a plan to amuse himself at the expense of… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Fox one day thought of a plan to amuse himself at the expense of the Stork, at whose odd appearance he was always laughing. Who acts: Fox. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox and the Stork, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Fox and the Stork, sentence 1

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The Fox one day thought of a plan to amuse himself at the expense of the Stork, at whose odd appearance he was always laughing.

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**Who acts:** Fox · **What happens:** amuse, laugh, think · **To what, where:** Fox, expense, odd appearance, plan

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox and the Stork. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox), 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:pg19994:50:1
# text = The Fox one day thought of a plan to amuse himself at the expense of the Stork, at whose odd appearance he was always laughing.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	amuse	amuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	expense	expense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Stork	Stork	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	odd	odd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	26	advmod	_	_
26	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **amuse** | to-infinitive |  | Fox |  | the expense of the Stork |  | at odd appearance | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus himself=Experiencer |
| 2 | **laugh** | past · progressive | Fox | odd appearance *not said here* |  |  |  | always *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent appearance=Theme |
| 3 | **think** |  |  | a plan |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition 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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