---
title: A Fox, seeing them, said, “If this lion were alive, you would soon f… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A Fox, seeing them, said, “If this lion were alive, you would soon find out that his claws were stronger than your teeth.” Who acts: Fox, lion, you, claws. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, sentence 49

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A Fox, seeing them, said, “If this lion were alive, you would soon find out that his claws were stronger than your teeth.”

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**Who acts:** Fox, lion, you, claws · **What happens:** see, say, be, find out · **To what, where:** Dogs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox, lion, you, claws), 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:pg21:13:49
# text = A Fox, seeing them, said, “If this lion were alive, you would soon find out that his claws were stronger than your teeth.”
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
19	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	xcomp	_	_
26	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund | a Fox *not said here* | Dogs *= dog* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a Fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | this lion |  |  |  |  | alive *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **find out** *in a quote* | would | you |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | past | lion's claws |  |  |  |  | than your teeth; strong *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:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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