---
title: A MAN wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he s… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A MAN wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he should try out the animal before he bought him. Who acts: MAN, Ass. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 12, sentence 42

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A MAN wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he should try out the animal before he bought him.

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**Who acts:** MAN, Ass · **What happens:** wish, purchase, agree, try out, buy · **To what, where:** MAN, Ass, animal, Purchaser

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (MAN, Ass), 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:pg21:14:42
# text = A MAN wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he should try out the animal before he bought him.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	MAN	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	wished	wish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	purchase	purchase	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	agreed	agree	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	owner	owner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | participle |  | a MAN *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **purchase** | to-infinitive |  | a Ass |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset ass=Theme |
| 3 | **agree** *speech: agree* | participle | a MAN |  |  |  |  | with Woe's owner | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent how S»: agent=Agent with owner=Co-Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **try out** *not said to happen* | should | Ass | the animal |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme |
| 5 | **buy** | past | Ass |  | Purchaser |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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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