---
title: The Lion said this in the hope that, as the Bull was in the act of r… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Lion said this in the hope that, as the Bull was in the act of reclining to eat, he might attack him to advantage, and make his meal on him. Who acts: Lion, Bull, act. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/12/98/)

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Lion said this in the hope that, as the Bull was in the act of reclining to eat, he might attack him to advantage, and make his meal on him.

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**Who acts:** Lion, Bull, act · **What happens:** say, be, recline, eat, attack, advantage · **To what, where:** this, hope, Bull, meal · **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 (Lion, Bull, act), 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:pg21:12:98
# text = The Lion said this in the hope that, as the Bull was in the act of reclining to eat, he might attack him to advantage, and make his meal on him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	act	act	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
17	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	reclining	recline	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	attack	attack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	advantage	advantage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Lion | this |  | the hope |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent this=Theme that=Manner |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Bull |  |  |  |  | as the act | tree rules |
| 3 | **recline** | gerund | the act *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** | to-infinitive | the act *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **attack** | might | Lion | Bull |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 6 | **advantage** | to-infinitive | Lion *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **make** | infinitive |  | Lion's meal |  |  |  | on Lion | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset meal=Product |

<!-- .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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