---
title: There he stood up to his ears, in the muddy water, and madly clawing… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: There he stood up to his ears, in the muddy water, and madly clawing at the slippery sides of the hole in his effort to climb out. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Astrologer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Astrologer, sentence 6

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There he stood up to his ears, in the muddy water, and madly clawing at the slippery sides of the hole in his effort to climb out.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** stand up, claw, climb out · **To what, where:** muddy water

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Astrologer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg19994:91:6
# text = There he stood up to his ears, in the muddy water, and madly clawing at the slippery sides of the hole in his effort to climb out.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	muddy	muddy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	madly	madly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	clawing	claw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	slippery	slippery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	effort	effort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	climb	climb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand up** | past | man |  |  | the muddy water; there |  | to man's ears | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in water=Location |
| 2 | **claw** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the slippery sides of the hole in man's effort; madly *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at side=Patient |
| 3 | **climb out** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «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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