---
title: A DOG, used to eating eggs, saw an Oyster and, opening his mouth to… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A DOG, used to eating eggs, saw an Oyster and, opening his mouth to its widest extent, swallowed it down with the utmost relish, supposing it to be an egg. Who acts: DOG, Oyster. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/15/118/)

<!-- 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 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/15/) / 118

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 13, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A DOG, used to eating eggs, saw an Oyster and, opening his mouth to its widest extent, swallowed it down with the utmost relish, supposing it to be an egg.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** DOG, Oyster · **What happens:** use, eat, see, open, swallow down, suppose · **To what, where:** DOG, eggs, Oyster, mouth, widest extent, egg

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (DOG, Oyster), 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:pg21:15:118
# text = A DOG, used to eating eggs, saw an Oyster and, opening his mouth to its widest extent, swallowed it down with the utmost relish, supposing it to be an egg.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	DOG	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	eating	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Oyster	oyster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	opening	open	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	widest	wide	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	amod	_	_
20	extent	extent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	down	down	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	utmost	utmost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	relish	relish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	supposing	suppose	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	cop	_	_
34	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | participle |  | a DOG *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | infinitive |  | eggs |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Patient |
| 3 | **see** | past | a DOG | a Oyster |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer oyster=Stimulus |
| 4 | **open** | gerund | a DOG *not said here* | dog's mouth | Oyster's widest extent |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent mouth=Patient to extent=Recipient |
| 5 | **swallow down** | past |  | Oyster |  |  |  | with the utmost relish | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 6 | **suppose** | gerund |  | Oyster |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent it=Attribute |
| 7 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a egg |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **extend** |  | Oyster |  |  |  |  |  | nom extent «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/15/117/)
- next →: [sentence 119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/15/119/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/15/)