---
title: The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal. Who acts: Hare, Fox, Tortoise. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, sentence 71

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The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal.

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**Who acts:** Hare, Fox, Tortoise · **What happens:** believe, be, assent, agree, choose, fix · **To what, where:** assertion, course, goal · **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 (Hare, Fox, Tortoise), 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:pg21:3:71
# text = The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Hare	Hare	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	believing	believe	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	assertion	assertion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
9	simply	simply	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	assented	assent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	proposal	proposal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	fix	fix	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	goal	goal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | gerund | the Hare *not said here* | Tortoise's assertion |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer assertion=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | impossible, simply *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **assent** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | to the proposal | tree rules |
| 4 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | the Hare |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **choose** *not said to happen* | should | the Fox | the course |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Theme |
| 6 | **fix** | infinitive | the Fox *not said here* | the goal |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent goal=Patient |
| 7 | **assert** |  | Tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | nom assertion «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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