---
title: WHEN A FOX who had never yet seen a Lion, fell in with him by chance… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: WHEN A FOX who had never yet seen a Lion, fell in with him by chance for the first time in the forest, he was so frightened that he nearly died with fear. Who acts: FOX, Lion. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, sentence 21

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WHEN A FOX who had never yet seen a Lion, fell in with him by chance for the first time in the forest, he was so frightened that he nearly died with fear.

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**Who acts:** FOX, Lion · **What happens:** not see, fall in, be, die · **To what, where:** Lion

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (FOX, Lion), 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:pg21:12:21
# text = WHEN A FOX who had never yet seen a Lion, fell in with him by chance for the first time in the forest, he was so frightened that he nearly died with fear.
1	WHEN	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	8	mark	_	_
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	FOX	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	in	in	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	21	amod	_	_
21	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	parataxis	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | a FOX |  |  |  | yet |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **fall in** | past | a Lion |  |  |  |  | with king; by chance for the first time in the forest | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by chance=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past · passive |  | Lion |  |  |  | frightened *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **die** | past | Lion |  |  |  |  | with fear; nearly *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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