---
title: When he reached it, he discovered to his grief that it contained so… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: When he reached it, he discovered to his grief that it contained so little water that he could not possibly get at it. Who acts: Fox, water. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 9, sentence 38

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When he reached it, he discovered to his grief that it contained so little water that he could not possibly get at it.

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**Who acts:** Fox, water · **What happens:** reach, discover, contain, not get · **To what, where:** water, little water

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox, water), 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:pg21:11:38
# text = When he reached it, he discovered to his grief that it contained so little water that he could not possibly get at it.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	discovered	discover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	contained	contain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | Fox | water |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 2 | **discover** | past | Fox |  |  |  |  | to Fox's grief | vn discover-84-1 «NP V PP.topic S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **contain** | past | water | little water |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot water=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **get** | could | Fox |  |  | water |  | possibly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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