---
title: The Cranes, being light of wing, fled away at his approach; while th… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Cranes, being light of wing, fled away at his approach; while the Geese, being slower of flight and heavier in their bodies, were captured. Who acts: Cranes, Geese, birdcatcher. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, sentence 80

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The Cranes, being light of wing, fled away at his approach; while the Geese, being slower of flight and heavier in their bodies, were captured.

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**Who acts:** Cranes, Geese, birdcatcher · **What happens:** be, flee away, capture, approach · **To what, where:** light, approach, bodies, Geese

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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 (Cranes, Geese, birdcatcher), 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:pg21:12:80
# text = The Cranes, being light of wing, fled away at his approach; while the Geese, being slower of flight and heavier in their bodies, were captured.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Cranes	Crane	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	approach	approach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
15	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Geese	Goose	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
20	slower	slow	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	heavier	heavy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	conj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
29	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	captured	capture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | gerund |  | light |  |  |  | of wing | tree rules |
| 2 | **flee away** | past | the Cranes |  |  | birdcatcher's approach |  | away *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | gerund | the Geese *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of flight; slow *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | the Geese *not said here* |  |  | Geese's bodies |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **capture** | past · passive |  | the Geese |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 6 | **approach** |  | birdcatcher |  |  |  |  |  | nom approach «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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