---
title: A Hedgehog, passing by, saw his anguish and inquired if he should dr… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A Hedgehog, passing by, saw his anguish and inquired if he should drive away the flies that were tormenting him. Who acts: Hedgehog, flies. 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 109

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A Hedgehog, passing by, saw his anguish and inquired if he should drive away the flies that were tormenting him.

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**Who acts:** Hedgehog, flies · **What happens:** pass by, see, inquire, drive away, torment, anguish · **To what, where:** anguish, flies, Hedgehog

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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 (Hedgehog, flies), 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:pg21:10:109
# text = A Hedgehog, passing by, saw his anguish and inquired if he should drive away the flies that were tormenting him.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Hedgehog	hedgehog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	anguish	anguish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
16	away	away	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	tormenting	torment	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass by** | gerund | a Hedgehog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | a Hedgehog | Hedgehog's anguish |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anguish=Stimulus |
| 3 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | a Hedgehog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **drive away** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | Hedgehog | the flies |  |  |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fly=Theme |
| 5 | **torment** | past · progressive | the flies | Hedgehog |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 6 | **anguish** |  | Hedgehog |  |  |  |  |  | nom anguish «feeling intransitive»: poss=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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