---
title: When the Wolf came up, he asked the Ass what had made him lame, and… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: When the Wolf came up, he asked the Ass what had made him lame, and the Ass replied that he had stepped on a sharp thorn. Who acts: Wolf, Ass. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf and the Ass, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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

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When the Wolf came up, he asked the Ass what had made him lame, and the Ass replied that he had stepped on a sharp thorn.

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**Who acts:** Wolf, Ass · **What happens:** come up, ask, make, reply, step · **To what, where:** Ass, Wolf, sharp thorn · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf 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 (Wolf, Ass), 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:pg19994:62:4
# text = When the Wolf came up, he asked the Ass what had made him lame, and the Ass replied that he had stepped on a sharp thorn.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	lame	lame	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Ass	Ass	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	stepped	step	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	ccomp	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	thorn	thorn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come up** | past | the Wolf |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Wolf | the Ass |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent ass=Recipient |
| 3 | **make** | past · perfect · passive |  | the Ass |  |  |  | lame *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary he=Product |
| 4 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the Ass |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **step** | past · perfect · passive |  | Wolf |  | a sharp thorn |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=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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