---
title: The Ass was to go into the cave and drive the Goats out, while the L… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Ass was to go into the cave and drive the Goats out, while the Lion would stand at the entrance to strike them down. Who acts: Ass, Lion. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lion and the Ass, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Lion and the Ass, sentence 3

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The Ass was to go into the cave and drive the Goats out, while the Lion would stand at the entrance to strike them down.

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**Who acts:** Ass, Lion · **What happens:** be, drive out, stand, strike down · **To what, where:** cave, Goats, entrance, Lion

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Lion and the Ass. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ass, Lion), 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:pg19994:58:3
# text = The Ass was to go into the cave and drive the Goats out, while the Lion would stand at the entrance to strike them down.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Goats	Goat	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	entrance	entrance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	down	down	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	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 | **is** | past | the Ass |  |  | the cave |  | go *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **drive out** | infinitive | the Ass *not said here* | the Goats |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goat=Theme |
| 3 | **stand** | would | the Lion |  |  | the entrance |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at entrance=Location |
| 4 | **strike down** | to-infinitive | the Lion *not said here* | Lion |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

<!-- .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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