---
title: The Father, unwilling to grant, and yet afraid to refuse his request… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Father, unwilling to grant, and yet afraid to refuse his request, hit upon this expedient to rid himself of his importunities. Who acts: Father, Lion. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/4/112/)

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, sentence 112

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The Father, unwilling to grant, and yet afraid to refuse his request, hit upon this expedient to rid himself of his importunities.

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**Who acts:** Father, Lion · **What happens:** unwill, grant, refuse, hit, rid, request · **To what, where:** request, Lion

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Father, Lion), 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:pg21:4:112
# text = The Father, unwilling to grant, and yet afraid to refuse his request, hit upon this expedient to rid himself of his importunities.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Father	Father	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	unwilling	unwill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	grant	grant	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	request	request	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	hit	hit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
17	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	expedient	expedient	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	rid	rid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	importunities	importunity	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **unwill** | gerund | the Father |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **grant** | to-infinitive | the Father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **refuse** | to-infinitive | the Father *not said here* | Lion's request |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent request=Theme |
| 4 | **hit** | infinitive | the Father *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon this expedient | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **rid** | to-infinitive | the Father *not said here* | Lion |  |  |  | of Lion's importunities | vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent himself=Source of importunity=Theme |
| 6 | **request** |  | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | nom request «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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