---
title: In the desire to prove to him his mistake, his Mother placed before… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: In the desire to prove to him his mistake, his Mother placed before him a few grains of frankincense, and asked, “What is it?” Who acts: Mother, driver. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, sentence 103

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In the desire to prove to him his mistake, his Mother placed before him a few grains of frankincense, and asked, “What is it?”

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**Who acts:** Mother, driver · **What happens:** prove, place, ask, be, mistake · **To what, where:** mistake, driver, desire, few grains, grain · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mother, driver), 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:pg21:3:103
# text = In the desire to prove to him his mistake, his Mother placed before him a few grains of frankincense, and asked, “What is it?”
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	prove	prove	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	before	before	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	grains	grain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	frankincense	frankincense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	parataxis	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prove** | to-infinitive |  | driver's mistake | driver | the desire |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mistake=Theme |
| 2 | **place** | past | driver's Mother | a few grains of frankincense |  |  | before driver |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent grain=Theme before he=Destination |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | driver's Mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | grain |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **mistake** |  | driver |  |  |  |  |  | nom mistake «act intransitive»: 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.

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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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