---
title: WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him. Who acts: WOLF. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, sentence 9

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WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him.

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**Who acts:** WOLF · **What happens:** meet, resolve, not lay, find, justify, eat · **To what, where:** violent hands, plea, right, Lamb

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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 (WOLF), 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:pg21:3:9
# text = WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him.
1	WOLF	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	meeting	meet	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	astray	astray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fold	fold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
12	resolved	resolve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
16	violent	violent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	plea	plea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	justify	justify	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	Lamb	Lamb	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’s	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl	_	_
37	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | gerund | WOLF *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a Lamb | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with lamb=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **resolve** | past | WOLF |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **lay** | to-infinitive | WOLF *not said here* | violent hands |  |  |  | on Lamb | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hand=Theme on he=Destination |
| 4 | **find** | to-infinitive | WOLF *not said here* | some plea |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plea=Topic |
| 5 | **justify** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | WOLF *not said here* | the Wolf's right | the Lamb |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent right=Topic to lamb=Recipient |
| 6 | **eat** | to-infinitive | WOLF *not said here* | Lamb |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

<!-- .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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