---
title: As the Thief threw him the pieces of meat, the Dog said, “If you thi… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: As the Thief threw him the pieces of meat, the Dog said, “If you think to stop my mouth, you will be greatly mistaken. Who acts: Thief, Dog, you. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, sentence 4

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As the Thief threw him the pieces of meat, the Dog said, “If you think to stop my mouth, you will be greatly mistaken.

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**Who acts:** Thief, Dog, you · **What happens:** throw, say, think, stop, be · **To what, where:** pieces, him, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Thief, Dog, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg21:952`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg21:12:4
# text = As the Thief threw him the pieces of meat, the Dog said, “If you think to stop my mouth, you will be greatly mistaken.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	_
16	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
27	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	mistaken	mistake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | past | the Thief | the pieces of meat | him *= he* |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination piece=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Dog |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **stop** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | my mouth |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality mouth=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | future | you |  |  |  |  | greatly, mistake *property* | 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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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