---
title: A Wolf had been prowling around a flock of Sheep for a long time, an… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: A Wolf had been prowling around a flock of Sheep for a long time, and the Shepherd watched very anxiously to prevent him from carrying off a Lamb. Who acts: Wolf, Shepherd. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf and the Shepherd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Wolf and the Shepherd, sentence 1

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A Wolf had been prowling around a flock of Sheep for a long time, and the Shepherd watched very anxiously to prevent him from carrying off a Lamb.

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**Who acts:** Wolf, Shepherd · **What happens:** prowl, watch, prevent, carry off · **To what, where:** flock, Shepherd, Lamb

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf and the Shepherd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wolf, Shepherd), 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:pg19994:77:1
# text = A Wolf had been prowling around a flock of Sheep for a long time, and the Shepherd watched very anxiously to prevent him from carrying off a Lamb.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	aux	_	_
5	prowling	prowl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	around	around	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Shepherd	Shepherd	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	anxiously	anxiously	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
27	off	off	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	Lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prowl** | past · perfect · progressive | a Wolf |  |  | a flock of Sheep | time |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme around flock=Trajectory |
| 2 | **watch** | past | the Shepherd |  |  |  |  | anxiously *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | the Shepherd *not said here* | Shepherd |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer he=Theme |
| 4 | **carry off** | gerund | the Shepherd *not said here* | a Lamb |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lamb=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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