---
title: A HEIFER saw an Ox hard at work harnessed to a plow, and tormented h… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A HEIFER saw an Ox hard at work harnessed to a plow, and tormented him with reflections on his unhappy fate in being compelled to labor. Who acts: HEIFER, treasure. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 4, sentence 13

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A HEIFER saw an Ox hard at work harnessed to a plow, and tormented him with reflections on his unhappy fate in being compelled to labor.

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**Who acts:** HEIFER, treasure · **What happens:** see, harness, torment, compel, fate · **To what, where:** Ox, work, treasure, unhappy fate

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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 (HEIFER, treasure), 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:pg21:6:13
# text = A HEIFER saw an Ox hard at work harnessed to a plow, and tormented him with reflections on his unhappy fate in being compelled to labor.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	HEIFER	heifer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	harnessed	harness	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	plow	plow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	tormented	torment	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	reflections	reflection	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
23	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	compelled	compel	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	labor	labor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | a HEIFER | a Ox |  | work |  | hard *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ox=Stimulus |
| 2 | **harness** | participle |  | work *not said here* |  |  |  | to a plow | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient to plow=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **torment** | past | a HEIFER *not said here* | treasure |  | treasure's unhappy fate |  | with reflections | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 4 | **compel** | gerund · passive | a HEIFER *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to labor | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP» |
| 5 | **fate** |  | treasure |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: 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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