---
title: But before he could untie the reed that bound him to the dead Mouse,… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But before he could untie the reed that bound him to the dead Mouse, a Hawk came sailing over the pond. Who acts: Frog, reed, Hawk. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Frog and the Mouse, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Frog and the Mouse, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But before he could untie the reed that bound him to the dead Mouse, a Hawk came sailing over the pond.

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**Who acts:** Frog, reed, Hawk · **What happens:** untie, bind, come, sail · **To what, where:** reed, Frog, pond

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Frog and the Mouse. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Frog, reed, Hawk), 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:pg19994:94:12
# text = But before he could untie the reed that bound him to the dead Mouse, a Hawk came sailing over the pond.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	untie	untie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	reed	reed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	bound	bind	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	Mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Hawk	Hawk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	sailing	sail	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **untie** | could | Frog | the reed |  |  |  |  | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reed=Patient |
| 2 | **bind** | past | the reed | Frog |  |  |  | to the dead Mouse | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Patient to mouse=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **come** | past | a Hawk |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sail** | gerund | a Hawk *not said here* |  |  | the pond |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over pond=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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