---
title: "Yes," said the Grasshoppers, who were very fond of a joke; "it is t… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: "Yes," said the Grasshoppers, who were very fond of a joke; "it is the dew we drink! Who acts: Grasshoppers, food, we. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and the Grasshoppers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Ass and the Grasshoppers, sentence 6

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"Yes," said the Grasshoppers, who were very fond of a joke; "it is the dew we drink!

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**Who acts:** Grasshoppers, food, we · **What happens:** say, be, drink · **To what, where:** dew · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and the Grasshoppers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Grasshoppers, food, we), 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:pg19994:73:6
# text = "Yes," said the Grasshoppers, who were very fond of a joke; "it is the dew we drink!
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Grasshoppers	Grasshopper	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	dew	dew	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	drink	drink	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Grasshoppers |  |  |  |  | of a joke; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | food | the dew |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **drink** *in a quote* | present | we | the dew *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dew=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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