---
title: It happened once upon a time that a certain Greek ship bound for Ath… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened once upon a time that a certain Greek ship bound for Athens was wrecked off the coast close to Piraeus, the port of Athens. Who acts: It. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Monkey and the Dolphin, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Monkey and the Dolphin, sentence 1

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It happened once upon a time that a certain Greek ship bound for Athens was wrecked off the coast close to Piraeus, the port of Athens.

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**Who acts:** It · **What happens:** happen, wreck · **To what, where:** certain Greek ship bound

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Monkey and the Dolphin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It), 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:pg19994:61:1
# text = It happened once upon a time that a certain Greek ship bound for Athens was wrecked off the coast close to Piraeus, the port of Athens.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
9	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
10	Greek	Greek	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	bound	bound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Athens	Athens	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	wrecked	wreck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl:relcl	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	coast	coast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Piraeus	Piraeus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	port	port	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	appos	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	Athens	Athens	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | It |  |  |  | time | once *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **wreck** | past · passive |  | a certain Greek ship bound for Athens |  |  |  | off the coast | tree rules |

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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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