---
title: A NIGHTINGALE, sitting aloft upon an oak and singing according to hi… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A NIGHTINGALE, sitting aloft upon an oak and singing according to his wont, was seen by a Hawk who, being in need of food, swooped down and seized him. Who acts: NIGHTINGALE, Hawk. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, sentence 58

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A NIGHTINGALE, sitting aloft upon an oak and singing according to his wont, was seen by a Hawk who, being in need of food, swooped down and seized him.

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**Who acts:** NIGHTINGALE, Hawk · **What happens:** sit, sing, accord, see, be, swoop down · **To what, where:** oak, wont, NIGHTINGALE, need, food

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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 (NIGHTINGALE, Hawk), 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:pg21:12:58
# text = A NIGHTINGALE, sitting aloft upon an oak and singing according to his wont, was seen by a Hawk who, being in need of food, swooped down and seized him.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	NIGHTINGALE	nightingale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	aloft	aloft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	conj	_	_
11	according	accord	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	wont	wont	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Hawk	Hawk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	cop	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	swooped	swoop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	_
30	down	down	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | gerund | a NIGHTINGALE *not said here* |  |  | a oak |  | aloft *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon oak=Location |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | a NIGHTINGALE *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **accord** | gerund | a NIGHTINGALE *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to nightingale's wont *goal* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to wont=Goal |
| 4 | **see** | past · passive | a Hawk | a NIGHTINGALE |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  | need |  | of food | tree rules |
| 6 | **swoop down** | participle |  | food *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **seize** | past |  | nightingale |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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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