---
title: At nightfall the Cock, looking for a place to roost, as was his cust… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: At nightfall the Cock, looking for a place to roost, as was his custom, spied nearby a hollow tree that he thought would do very nicely for a night's lodging. Who acts: nightfall, Cock. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At nightfall the Cock, looking for a place to roost, as was his custom, spied nearby a hollow tree that he thought would do very nicely for a night's lodging.

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**Who acts:** nightfall, Cock · **What happens:** look, roost, be, spy, think, do · **To what, where:** hollow tree, nightfall

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nightfall, Cock), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg19994:7:4
# text = At nightfall the Cock, looking for a place to roost, as was his custom, spied nearby a hollow tree that he thought would do very nicely for a night's lodging.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	nightfall	nightfall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Cock	Cock	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	roost	roost	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
18	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	nearby	nearby	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	hollow	hollow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	nicely	nicely	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	's	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	lodging	lodging	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | gerund | nightfall *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a place | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for place=Theme |
| 2 | **roost** | to-infinitive | nightfall *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | as Cock's custom | tree rules |
| 4 | **spy** | past |  | a hollow tree |  | nightfall |  | nearby *property* | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tree=Stimulus |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Cock |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **do** | would | Cock *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a night's lodging; nicely *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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