---
title: But it happened that the Shepherd took a fancy for mutton broth that… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But it happened that the Shepherd took a fancy for mutton broth that very evening, and, picking up a knife, went to the fold. Who acts: it, Shepherd, that. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it happened that the Shepherd took a fancy for mutton broth that very evening, and, picking up a knife, went to the fold.

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**Who acts:** it, Shepherd, that · **What happens:** happen, take, evening, pick up, go · **To what, where:** fancy, knife, fold

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, Shepherd, that), 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:pg19994:97:6
# text = But it happened that the Shepherd took a fancy for mutton broth that very evening, and, picking up a knife, went to the fold.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	mutton	mutton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	broth	broth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	picking	pick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
20	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
24	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	fold	fold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | past | the Shepherd | a fancy |  |  |  | for mutton broth | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent fancy=Theme for broth=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **evening** |  | that |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **pick up** | gerund |  | a knife |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Topic |
| 5 | **go** | past | the Shepherd *not said here* |  |  | the fold |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to fold=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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