---
title: The next day, when it came out of its hole for food, he took up his… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The next day, when it came out of its hole for food, he took up his axe, but by swinging too hastily, missed its head and cut off only the end of its tail. Who acts: loss, Snake. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, sentence 4

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The next day, when it came out of its hole for food, he took up his axe, but by swinging too hastily, missed its head and cut off only the end of its tail.

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**Who acts:** loss, Snake · **What happens:** come out, take up, swing, miss, cut off · **To what, where:** hole, axe, head, end

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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 (loss, Snake), 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:pg21:5:4
# text = The next day, when it came out of its hole for food, he took up his axe, but by swinging too hastily, missed its head and cut off only the end of its tail.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	swinging	swing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
24	too	too	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	hastily	hastily	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
27	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
28	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	conj	_	_
32	off	off	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	only	only	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come out** | past | loss | loss's hole for food |  |  | day |  | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient hole=Result |
| 2 | **take up** | past | Snake | Snake's axe |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent axe=Theme |
| 3 | **swing** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | hastily *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **miss** | past |  | loss's head |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer head=Stimulus |
| 5 | **cut off** | participle |  | the end of loss's tail |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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