---
title: A Heron was walking sedately along the bank of a stream, his eyes on… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: A Heron was walking sedately along the bank of a stream, his eyes on the clear water, and his long neck and pointed bill ready to snap up a likely morsel for his breakfast. Who acts: Heron. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Heron, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Heron, sentence 1

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A Heron was walking sedately along the bank of a stream, his eyes on the clear water, and his long neck and pointed bill ready to snap up a likely morsel for his breakfast.

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**Who acts:** Heron · **What happens:** walk, point, snap up · **To what, where:** bank, likely morsel

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Heron. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Heron), 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:pg19994:69:1
# text = A Heron was walking sedately along the bank of a stream, his eyes on the clear water, and his long neck and pointed bill ready to snap up a likely morsel for his breakfast.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Heron	heron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	sedately	sedately	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	along	along	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	amod	_	_
26	bill	bill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
27	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	snap	snap	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	morsel	morsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past · progressive | a Heron |  |  | the bank of a stream and Heron's eyes on the clear water |  | sedately *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along bank=Trajectory |
| 2 | **point** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **snap up** | to-infinitive | a Heron *not said here* | a likely morsel |  |  |  | for Heron's breakfast | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location morsel=Theme |

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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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