---
title: He grasped as many as he could possibly hold, but when he tried to p… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: He grasped as many as he could possibly hold, but when he tried to pull out his hand, he was prevented from doing so by the neck of the pitcher. Who acts: Sheep. 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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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, sentence 131

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He grasped as many as he could possibly hold, but when he tried to pull out his hand, he was prevented from doing so by the neck of the pitcher.

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**Who acts:** Sheep · **What happens:** grasp, hold, try, pull out, prevent, do · **To what, where:** many, hand, Sheep

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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 (Sheep), 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:pg21:4:131
# text = He grasped as many as he could possibly hold, but when he tried to pull out his hand, he was prevented from doing so by the neck of the pitcher.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	grasped	grasp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	obj	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	prevented	prevent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
24	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	pitcher	pitcher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grasp** | past | Sheep | many |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer many=Stimulus |
| 2 | **hold** | could | Sheep |  |  |  |  | possibly *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **try** | past | Sheep |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pull out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Sheep *not said here* | Sheep's hand |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **prevent** | past · passive |  | Sheep |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 6 | **do** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | by the neck of the pitcher | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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