---
title: A SHEPHERD, watching his Ass feeding in a meadow, was alarmed all of… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A SHEPHERD, watching his Ass feeding in a meadow, was alarmed all of a sudden by the cries of the enemy. Who acts: SHEPHERD, cries, Ass, enemy. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 8, sentence 100

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A SHEPHERD, watching his Ass feeding in a meadow, was alarmed all of a sudden by the cries of the enemy.

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**Who acts:** SHEPHERD, cries, Ass, enemy · **What happens:** watch, alarm, feed, cry · **To what, where:** Ass feeding, meadow, SHEPHERD

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (SHEPHERD, cries, Ass, enemy), 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:pg21:10:100
# text = A SHEPHERD, watching his Ass feeding in a meadow, was alarmed all of a sudden by the cries of the enemy.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	SHEPHERD	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	feeding	feeding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	alarmed	alarm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sudden	sudden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	nmod	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | gerund | a SHEPHERD *not said here* | Ass's Ass feeding |  | a meadow |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feeding=Theme |
| 2 | **alarm** | past · passive | the cries of the enemy | a SHEPHERD |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer all=Result |
| 3 | **feed** |  | Ass |  |  |  |  |  | nom feeding «act intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **cry** |  | the enemy |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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