---
title: The bird-trap was quite empty, as he had caught nothing, and he had… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The bird-trap was quite empty, as he had caught nothing, and he had to kill a pied Partridge, which he had tamed for a decoy. Who acts: bird trap, Lion. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/8/104/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Three hundred Aesop’s fables](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/) / [Aesop’s Fables, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/8/) / 104

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The bird-trap was quite empty, as he had caught nothing, and he had to kill a pied Partridge, which he had tamed for a decoy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bird trap, Lion · **What happens:** be, catch, have, kill, pi, tame · **To what, where:** Lion, pied Partridge

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird trap, Lion), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg21:8:104
# text = The bird-trap was quite empty, as he had caught nothing, and he had to kill a pied Partridge, which he had tamed for a decoy.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	trap	trap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	pied	pi	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	Partridge	Partridge	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	tamed	tame	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	decoy	decoy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the bird trap |  |  |  |  | empty *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **catch** | past · perfect · passive |  | Lion |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary nothing=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **kill** | to-infinitive | Lion *not said here* | a pied Partridge |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent partridge=Theme |
| 5 | **pi** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **tame** | past · perfect · passive |  | a pied Partridge |  |  |  | for a decoy | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/8/103/)
- next →: [sentence 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/8/105/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/8/)