---
title: While hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrifici… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: While hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it, along with a burning cinder, to her nest. Who acts: goat, villagers. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 12, with its depen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/81/)

<!-- 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 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/) / 81

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 12, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it, along with a burning cinder, to her nest.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** goat, villagers · **What happens:** hover, sacrifice, seize, carry, burn · **To what, where:** altar, goat, piece

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (goat, villagers), 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:pg21:14:81
# text = While hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it, along with a burning cinder, to her nest.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	hovering	hover	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
3	near	near	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	obl	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	villagers	villager	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	sacrificing	sacrifice	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	along	along	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	amod	_	_
33	cinder	cinder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hover** | gerund | goat *not said here* |  |  | a altar |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme near altar=Location |
| 2 | **sacrifice** | past · progressive | some villagers | a goat |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent goat=Theme |
| 3 | **seize** | past | goat | a piece of the flesh |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Theme |
| 4 | **carry** | past | goat *not said here* | piece |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/80/)
- next →: [sentence 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/82/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/)