---
title: He flew around with a great whir of his wings and settled upon a lar… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: He flew around with a great whir of his wings and settled upon a large ram, with the intention of carrying him off, but his claws became entangled in the ram’s fleece and he was not able to release himself, although he fluttered with his feathers as much as he could. Who acts: Jackdaw, intention, wi
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 12, sentence 71

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He flew around with a great whir of his wings and settled upon a large ram, with the intention of carrying him off, but his claws became entangled in the ram’s fleece and he was not able to release himself, although he fluttered with his feathers as much as he could.

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**Who acts:** Jackdaw, intention, wings · **What happens:** fly around, settle, carry off, entangle, not be, release · **To what, where:** Jackdaw, claws, much

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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 (Jackdaw, intention, wings), 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:pg21:14:71
# text = He flew around with a great whir of his wings and settled upon a large ram, with the intention of carrying him off, but his claws became entangled in the ram’s fleece and he was not able to release himself, although he fluttered with his feathers as much as he could.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	around	around	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	whir	whir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	settled	settle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	ram	ram	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	intention	intention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
21	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
29	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	entangled	entangle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	ram	ram	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’s	's	PART	POS	_	33	case	_	_
35	fleece	fleece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
40	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	conj	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	42	mark	_	_
42	release	release	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	xcomp	_	_
43	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
45	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
46	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
48	with	with	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	50	nmod:poss	_	_
50	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obl	_	_
51	as	as	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
52	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	obj	_	_
53	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
54	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
55	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	52	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly around** | past | Jackdaw |  |  |  |  | with a great whir of Jackdaw's wings; around *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **settle** | past | Jackdaw *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon a large ram; with the intention | vn odge-46-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with intention=Location |
| 3 | **carry off** | gerund | the intention *not said here* | Jackdaw |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **entangle** | past · passive |  | Jackdaw's claws |  |  |  | in the ram's fleece | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination in fleece=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **is** | past | Jackdaw |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **release** | to-infinitive | Jackdaw *not said here* | Jackdaw |  |  |  |  | vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Causer himself=Source |
| 7 | **flutter** | past | Jackdaw | much |  |  |  | with Jackdaw's feathers | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location much=Theme |
| 8 | **whir** |  | Jackdaw's wings |  |  |  |  |  | nom whir «event intransitive»: of=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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