---
title: A DOG lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented th… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A DOG lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented the oxen from eating the hay which had been placed for them. Who acts: DOG, growling. 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 51

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A DOG lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented the oxen from eating the hay which had been placed for them.

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**Who acts:** DOG, growling · **What happens:** lie, prevent, eat, place, growl · **To what, where:** manger, oxen, hay

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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 (DOG, growling), 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:pg21:4:51
# text = A DOG lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented the oxen from eating the hay which had been placed for them.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	DOG	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	manger	manger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	growling	growling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	snapping	snap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	prevented	prevent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	oxen	oxen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	hay	hay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl:relcl	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | a DOG |  |  | a manger |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in manger=Location |
| 2 | **prevent** | gerund · passive | Dog's growling | the oxen |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer oxen=Theme |
| 3 | **eat** | gerund | Dog's growling *not said here* | the hay |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hay=Patient |
| 4 | **place** | past · perfect · passive |  | the hay |  |  |  | for bystanders *= bystander* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **growl** |  | Dog |  |  |  |  |  | nom growling «communication intransitive»: 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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