---
title: The fables were in the first instance only narrated by Æsop, and for… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The fables were in the first instance only narrated by Æsop, and for a long time were handed down by the uncertain channel of oral tradition. Who acts: fables, uncertain channel. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Literally Translated From the Greek, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Literally Translated From the Greek, sentence 47

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The fables were in the first instance only narrated by Æsop, and for a long time were handed down by the uncertain channel of oral tradition.

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**Who acts:** fables, uncertain channel · **What happens:** be, narrate, hand down, channel · **To what, where:** first instance, oral tradition

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Literally Translated From the Greek. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fables, uncertain channel), 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:pg21:1:47
# text = The fables were in the first instance only narrated by Æsop, and for a long time were handed down by the uncertain channel of oral tradition.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fables	fable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	amod	_	_
7	instance	instance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	only	only	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	narrated	narrate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Æsop	Æsop	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
20	down	down	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	uncertain	uncertain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	channel	channel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	oral	oral	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	tradition	tradition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the fables |  |  | the first instance |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **narrate** *speech: other* | participle |  | the first instance *not said here* |  |  |  | by Æsop | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hand down** | past · passive | the uncertain channel of oral tradition | the first instance *not said here* |  |  | time |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **channel** |  |  | oral tradition |  |  |  |  | nom channel «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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:** «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 21 (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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