---
title: The Lapdog knew many tricks and was a great favourite with his maste… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Lapdog knew many tricks and was a great favourite with his master, who often fondled him and seldom went out to dine without bringing him home some tidbit to eat. Who acts: Lapdog, master. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, with its dependency tree and
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/29/)

<!-- 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/) / 29

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Lapdog knew many tricks and was a great favourite with his master, who often fondled him and seldom went out to dine without bringing him home some tidbit to eat.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Lapdog, master · **What happens:** know, be, fondle, go out, dine, bring · **To what, where:** many tricks, great favourite, Lapdog, tidbit

<!-- .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 (Lapdog, master), 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:pg21:5:29
# text = The Lapdog knew many tricks and was a great favourite with his master, who often fondled him and seldom went out to dine without bringing him home some tidbit to eat.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Lapdog	Lapdog	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	favourite	favourite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
16	often	often	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	fondled	fondle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	seldom	seldom	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
22	out	out	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	dine	dine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
25	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	bringing	bring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	home	home	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
29	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
30	tidbit	tidbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | the Lapdog | many tricks |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer trick=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the Lapdog *not said here* | a great favourite |  |  |  | with Lapdog's master | tree rules |
| 3 | **fondle** | past | Lapdog's master | Lapdog |  |  |  | often *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Experiencer |
| 4 | **go out** | past | Lapdog's master *not said here* |  |  |  |  | out, seldom *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **dine** | to-infinitive | Lapdog's master *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **bring** | gerund | Lapdog's master *not said here* | some tidbit | Lapdog |  |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination tidbit=Theme |
| 7 | **eat** | to-infinitive | Lapdog's master *not said here* | some tidbit *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «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.

<!-- 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 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/28/)
- next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/30/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/5/)