---
title: The Lion had little hope of eating them, for he was no match for thr… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Lion had little hope of eating them, for he was no match for three strong Bullocks with their sharp horns and hoofs. Who acts: Lion, little hope. 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 3

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The Lion had little hope of eating them, for he was no match for three strong Bullocks with their sharp horns and hoofs.

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**Who acts:** Lion, little hope · **What happens:** have, eat, be · **To what, where:** little hope, Bullocks

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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, little hope), 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:pg19994:92:3
# text = The Lion had little hope of eating them, for he was no match for three strong Bullocks with their sharp horns and hoofs.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	match	match	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
17	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	Bullocks	bullock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the Lion | little hope |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hope=Patient |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund | little hope *not said here* | Bullocks *= bullock* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | Lion |  |  |  |  | for no match; for three strong Bullocks with Bullocks's sharp horns and hoofs | tree rules |

<!-- .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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