---
title: A LION, greatly desiring to capture a Bull, and yet afraid to attack… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A LION, greatly desiring to capture a Bull, and yet afraid to attack him on account of his great size, resorted to a trick to ensure his destruction. Who acts: LION. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/12/96/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Three hundred Aesop’s fables](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/) / [Aesop’s Fables, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/12/) / 96

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A LION, greatly desiring to capture a Bull, and yet afraid to attack him on account of his great size, resorted to a trick to ensure his destruction.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** LION · **What happens:** desire, capture, attack, resort, ensure, account · **To what, where:** Bull, account, destruction, great size

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (LION), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg21:12:96
# text = A LION, greatly desiring to capture a Bull, and yet afraid to attack him on account of his great size, resorted to a trick to ensure his destruction.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	LION	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	desiring	desire	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	capture	capture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	attack	attack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	resorted	resort	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	ensure	ensure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	destruction	destruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **desire** | gerund | a LION |  |  |  |  | greatly *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **capture** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a LION *not said here* | a Bull |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bull=Theme |
| 3 | **attack** | to-infinitive | a LION *not said here* | Bull |  | account of Lion's great size |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 4 | **resort** | participle | a LION *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to a trick *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to trick=Result |
| 5 | **ensure** | to-infinitive | a LION *not said here* | Lion's destruction |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition destruction=Theme |
| 6 | **account** |  |  | Lion's great size |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **destroy** |  | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | nom destruction «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/12/95/)
- next →: [sentence 97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/12/97/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/12/)