---
title: A goat-herd seeing him stop, mocked him, saying “The little one is t… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A goat-herd seeing him stop, mocked him, saying “The little one is the best runner of the two.” Who acts: goat herd, herd, little one. 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 36

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A goat-herd seeing him stop, mocked him, saying “The little one is the best runner of the two.”

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**Who acts:** goat herd, herd, little one · **What happens:** see, stop, mock, say, be · **To what, where:** herd, Hound, best runner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (goat herd, herd, little one), 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:pg21:10:36
# text = A goat-herd seeing him stop, mocked him, saying “The little one is the best runner of the two.”
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	mocked	mock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	amod	_	_
20	runner	runner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund | a goat herd *not said here* | herd |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stop** | infinitive | herd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **mock** | past | a goat herd | Hound |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | a goat herd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the little one | the best runner |  |  |  | of the two | tree rules |

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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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