---
title: After a long and fruitless search, he made a vow that, if he could o… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: After a long and fruitless search, he made a vow that, if he could only discover the thief who had stolen the Calf, he would offer a lamb in sacrifice to Hermes, Pan, and the Guardian Deities of the forest. Who acts: calf, thief. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables,
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/3/108/)

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, sentence 108

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After a long and fruitless search, he made a vow that, if he could only discover the thief who had stolen the Calf, he would offer a lamb in sacrifice to Hermes, Pan, and the Guardian Deities of the forest.

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**Who acts:** calf, thief · **What happens:** make, discover, steal, offer · **To what, where:** vow, thief, Calf, lamb, sacrifice

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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 (calf, thief), 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:pg21:3:108
# text = After a long and fruitless search, he made a vow that, if he could only discover the thief who had stolen the Calf, he would offer a lamb in sacrifice to Hermes, Pan, and the Guardian Deities of the forest.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	fruitless	fruitless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
6	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	vow	vow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	dep	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	stolen	steal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Calf	Calf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	offer	offer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	Hermes	Hermes	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	Pan	Pan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	Guardian	guardian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	Deities	deity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | calf | a vow |  |  | after a long search | the Guardian Deities of the forest *obl* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vow=Product |
| 2 | **discover** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | calf | the thief |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thief=Topic |
| 3 | **steal** | past · perfect | the thief | the Calf |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location calf=Theme |
| 4 | **offer** | would | calf | a lamb |  | sacrifice to Hermes and Pan |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent lamb=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.

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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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