---
title: They always bark whenever we approach you and attack us before we ha… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: They always bark whenever we approach you and attack us before we have done any harm. Who acts: sheep, we. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/100/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Three hundred Aesop’s fables](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/) / [Aesop’s Fables, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/) / 100

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, sentence 100

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They always bark whenever we approach you and attack us before we have done any harm.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sheep, we · **What happens:** bark, approach, attack, do · **To what, where:** you, us, harm

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sheep, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg21:5:100
# text = They always bark whenever we approach you and attack us before we have done any harm.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	bark	bark	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	3	advmod	_	_
5	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	approach	approach	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl:relcl	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	attack	attack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bark** | present | sheep |  |  |  |  | always, whenever *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **approach** | present | we | you |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 3 | **attack** | infinitive | we *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 4 | **do** | present · perfect | we | any harm |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harm=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/99/)
- next →: [sentence 101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/101/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/)