---
title: They assembled on a certain day to carry out their purpose, and shar… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: They assembled on a certain day to carry out their purpose, and sharpened their horns for the contest. Who acts: Oxen. 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.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, sentence 39

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They assembled on a certain day to carry out their purpose, and sharpened their horns for the contest.

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**Who acts:** Oxen · **What happens:** assemble, carry out, sharpen, purpose · **To what, where:** purpose, horns

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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 (Oxen), 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:pg21:5:39
# text = They assembled on a certain day to carry out their purpose, and sharpened their horns for the contest.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	assembled	assemble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	sharpened	sharpen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	contest	contest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assemble** | past | Oxen |  |  |  | day |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **carry out** | to-infinitive | Oxen *not said here* | Oxen's purpose |  |  |  |  | vn act-114 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Eventuality |
| 3 | **sharpen** | past | Oxen *not said here* | Oxen's horns |  |  |  | for the contest | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent horn=Patient |
| 4 | **purpose** |  | Oxen |  |  |  |  |  | nom purpose «cognition 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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