---
title: He had tried to attack them several times, but they had kept togethe… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: He had tried to attack them several times, but they had kept together, and helped each other to drive him off. Who acts: Lion. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Three Bullocks and a Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, Three Bullocks and a Lion, sentence 2

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He had tried to attack them several times, but they had kept together, and helped each other to drive him off.

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**Who acts:** Lion · **What happens:** try, attack, keep together, help, drive off · **To what, where:** Bullocks, each, Lion

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Three Bullocks and a Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion), 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:pg19994:92:2
# text = He had tried to attack them several times, but they had kept together, and helped each other to drive him off.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	attack	attack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
14	together	together	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	17	obj	_	_
19	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	fixed	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past · perfect | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **attack** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Lion *not said here* | Bullocks *= bullock* |  |  | time |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **keep together** | past · perfect · passive |  | Bullocks *= bullock* |  |  |  | together *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **help** | past |  | each |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent each=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **drive off** | to-infinitive |  | Lion |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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