---
title: There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose y… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg. Who acts: Countryman, you, Goose. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Goose and the Golden Egg, with it
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Goose and the Golden Egg, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Countryman, you, Goose · **What happens:** be, possess, imagine, visit, lay, glitter · **To what, where:** wonderful Goose, nest, Countryman, golden egg

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Goose and the Golden Egg. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Countryman, you, Goose), 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:pg19994:82:1
# text = There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Countryman	countryman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	possessed	possess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	10	advmod	_	_
10	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Goose	goose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	visited	visit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	Goose	Goose	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	acl	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	glittering	glitter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a Countryman |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **possess** | past | a Countryman | the wonderful Goose |  |  | day |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot goose=Theme |
| 3 | **imagine** | can | you | the wonderful Goose *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot goose=Theme |
| 4 | **visit** | past | Countryman | the nest |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nest=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **lay** | past · perfect | the Goose | a Countryman *not said here* |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent countryman=Result |
| 6 | **glitter** | gerund | the Goose *not said here* | golden egg |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=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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