---
title: Being in want of food, he called to a Sheep who was passing, and ask… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Being in want of food, he called to a Sheep who was passing, and asked him to fetch some water from a stream flowing close beside him. Who acts: Wolf, Sheep, stream. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 4, sentence 128

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Being in want of food, he called to a Sheep who was passing, and asked him to fetch some water from a stream flowing close beside him.

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**Who acts:** Wolf, Sheep, stream · **What happens:** be, call, pass, ask, fetch, flow · **To what, where:** want, Sheep, Wolf, water, stream · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wolf, Sheep, stream), 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:pg21:6:128
# text = Being in want of food, he called to a Sheep who was passing, and asked him to fetch some water from a stream flowing close beside him.
1	Being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	cop	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	want	want	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	parataxis	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	from	from	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
26	flowing	flow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
28	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  | want |  | of food | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** *speech: assert* | past | Wolf |  | a Sheep |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to sheep=Recipient |
| 3 | **pass** | past · progressive | a Sheep |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Wolf *not said here* |  | Wolf |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **fetch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Wolf *not said here* | some water |  | a stream |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent water=Theme from stream=Source |
| 6 | **flow** | gerund | a stream *not said here* |  |  |  |  | beside Wolf; close *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beside he=Location |

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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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