---
title: He had caught a goodly number, when he saw a Scorpion, and mistaking… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: He had caught a goodly number, when he saw a Scorpion, and mistaking him for a locust, reached out his hand to take him. Who acts: BOY. 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 84

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He had caught a goodly number, when he saw a Scorpion, and mistaking him for a locust, reached out his hand to take him.

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**Who acts:** BOY · **What happens:** catch, see, mistake, reach out, take · **To what, where:** BOY, Scorpion, hand

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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 (BOY), 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:pg21:3:84
# text = He had caught a goodly number, when he saw a Scorpion, and mistaking him for a locust, reached out his hand to take him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	goodly	goodly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Scorpion	Scorpion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	mistaking	mistake	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	advcl	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	locust	locust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
21	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past · perfect · passive |  | BOY |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary number=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | BOY | a Scorpion |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer scorpion=Stimulus |
| 3 | **mistake** | gerund |  | BOY |  |  |  | for a locust | tree rules |
| 4 | **reach out** | past | BOY *not said here* | BOY's hand |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 5 | **take** | to-infinitive | BOY *not said here* |  | BOY |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |

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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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