---
title: A Fox passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when ther… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A Fox passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when there was no danger threatening from either huntsman or hound. Who acts: Fox, Boar, danger. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/7/119/)

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, sentence 119

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A Fox passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when there was no danger threatening from either huntsman or hound.

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**Who acts:** Fox, Boar, danger · **What happens:** pass by, ask, sharpen, be, threaten · **To what, where:** Boar, teeth, huntsman

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox, Boar, danger), 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:pg21:7:119
# text = A Fox passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when there was no danger threatening from either huntsman or hound.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	3	fixed	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	sharpened	sharpen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
18	threatening	threaten	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	huntsman	huntsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	hound	hound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass by** | gerund | a Fox *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a Fox |  | Boar |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **sharpen** | past | Boar | Boar's teeth |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent tooth=Patient |
| 4 | **be** | past | no danger |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **threaten** | gerund | no danger *not said here* |  |  | either huntsman or hound |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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