---
title: The Peacock, they say, did not at first have the beautiful feathers… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Peacock, they say, did not at first have the beautiful feathers in which he now takes so much pride. Who acts: they, Peacock. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Peacock, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Peacock, sentence 1

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The Peacock, they say, did not at first have the beautiful feathers in which he now takes so much pride.

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**Who acts:** they, Peacock · **What happens:** say, not have, take · **To what, where:** Peacock, beautiful feathers, much pride · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Peacock. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (they, Peacock), 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:pg19994:54:1
# text = The Peacock, they say, did not at first have the beautiful feathers in which he now takes so much pride.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Peacock	peacock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	11	obl	_	_
11	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
19	takes	take	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	pride	pride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | they | the Peacock *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent peacock=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **have** | past · do-support | the Peacock | the beautiful feathers |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Patient |
| 3 | **take** | present | Peacock | much pride |  |  | now |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent pride=Value in which=Location |

<!-- .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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