---
title: The Dolphin, though quite willing to give him assistance, was unable… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Dolphin, though quite willing to give him assistance, was unable to do so, as he could not by any means reach the land. Who acts: Dolphin. 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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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, sentence 67

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The Dolphin, though quite willing to give him assistance, was unable to do so, as he could not by any means reach the land.

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**Who acts:** Dolphin · **What happens:** give, be, do, not mean, reach · **To what, where:** assistance, Dolphin, land · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Dolphin), 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:pg21:7:67
# text = The Dolphin, though quite willing to give him assistance, was unable to do so, as he could not by any means reach the land.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Dolphin	Dolphin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	though	though	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	assistance	assistance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	obl	_	_
24	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
25	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | to-infinitive | the Dolphin *not said here* | assistance | Dolphin |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient assistance=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Dolphin |  |  |  |  | unable *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | the Dolphin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **mean** | could |  |  |  |  |  | by any | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **reach** | infinitive |  | the land |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent land=Theme |

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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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