---
title: He knocked at the door and inquired of the inmates how they all did,… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: He knocked at the door and inquired of the inmates how they all did, saying that if they were ill, he would be happy to prescribe for them and cure them. Who acts: Dog, Cat. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/105/)

<!-- 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/) / 105

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, sentence 105

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He knocked at the door and inquired of the inmates how they all did, saying that if they were ill, he would be happy to prescribe for them and cure them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dog, Cat · **What happens:** knock, inquire, do, say, be, prescribe · **To what, where:** Cat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Dog, Cat), 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:pg21:5:105
# text = He knocked at the door and inquired of the inmates how they all did, saying that if they were ill, he would be happy to prescribe for them and cure them.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	inmates	inmate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	advmod	_	_
14	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
26	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	prescribe	prescribe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	cure	cure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | past | Dog |  |  |  |  | at the door | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at door=Patient |
| 2 | **inquire** *speech: other* | participle | Dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the inmates | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of inmate=Recipient |
| 3 | **do** | past | Cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Cat |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | would | Dog |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **prescribe** | to-infinitive | Dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Cat | tree rules |
| 8 | **cure** | infinitive | Dog *not said here* | Cat |  |  |  |  | vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer they=Source |

<!-- .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 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/104/)
- next →: [sentence 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/106/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/)