---
title: While he was in the act of throwing himself over, his owner seized h… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was in the act of throwing himself over, his owner seized him by the tail, endeavoring to pull him back. Who acts: friend, act, owner. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 13, sentence 53

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While he was in the act of throwing himself over, his owner seized him by the tail, endeavoring to pull him back.

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**Who acts:** friend, act, owner · **What happens:** be, throw over, seize, endeavor, pull back · **To what, where:** act, friend

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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 (friend, act, owner), 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:pg21:15:53
# text = While he was in the act of throwing himself over, his owner seized him by the tail, endeavoring to pull him back.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	act	act	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	advcl	_	_
7	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
9	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obj	_	_
10	over	over	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	owner	owner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	endeavoring	endeavor	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | friend |  |  | the act |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **throw over** | gerund | the act *not said here* | friend |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 3 | **seize** | past | friend's owner | friend |  |  |  | by the tail | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **endeavor** | gerund | friend's owner *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **pull back** | to-infinitive | friend's owner *not said here* | friend |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent he=Result |

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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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