---
title: The moment he caught sight of me he opened his pointed mouth as if t… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The moment he caught sight of me he opened his pointed mouth as if to swallow me, and then he let out a piercing roar that frightened me almost to death." Who acts: kind, moment, piercing roar. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse, with its dependen
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The moment he caught sight of me he opened his pointed mouth as if to swallow me, and then he let out a piercing roar that frightened me almost to death."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** kind, moment, piercing roar · **What happens:** catch, open, swallow, let out, frighten, sight · **To what, where:** sight, pointed mouth, me, piercing roar

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (kind, moment, piercing roar), 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:pg19994:76:8
# text = The moment he caught sight of me he opened his pointed mouth as if to swallow me, and then he let out a piercing roar that frightened me almost to death."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	pointed	pointed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	swallow	swallow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	piercing	piercing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	roar	roar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | kind | sight of me |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 2 | **open** | past | the moment | kind's pointed mouth |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 3 | **swallow** | to-infinitive | the moment *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 4 | **let out** | past | kind | a piercing roar |  |  | then |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent roar=Theme |
| 5 | **frighten** | past | a piercing roar | me |  |  |  | to death | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer |
| 6 | **sight** |  |  | me |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=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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