---
title: A BULL was striving with all his might to squeeze himself through a… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A BULL was striving with all his might to squeeze himself through a narrow passage which led to his stall. Who acts: BULL, narrow passage. 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 132

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A BULL was striving with all his might to squeeze himself through a narrow passage which led to his stall.

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**Who acts:** BULL, narrow passage · **What happens:** strive, squeeze, lead · **To what, where:** Calf, narrow passage

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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 (BULL, narrow passage), 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:pg21:10:132
# text = A BULL was striving with all his might to squeeze himself through a narrow passage which led to his stall.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	BULL	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	striving	strive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	squeeze	squeeze	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	passage	passage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	stall	stall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strive** | past · progressive | a BULL |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **squeeze** | to-infinitive | a BULL *not said here* | Calf |  | a narrow passage |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent himself=Theme through passage=Trajectory |
| 3 | **lead** | past | a narrow passage |  |  |  |  | to Calf's stall | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition to stall=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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