---
title: When the Ass saw that the huge beast could be assailed with impunity… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: When the Ass saw that the huge beast could be assailed with impunity, he let drive at his forehead with his heels. Who acts: Ass, 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.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/8/48/)

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, sentence 48

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When the Ass saw that the huge beast could be assailed with impunity, he let drive at his forehead with his heels.

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**Who acts:** Ass, Lion · **What happens:** see, assail, let, drive · **To what, where:** huge beast, forehead · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Ass, Lion), 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:pg21:8:48
# text = When the Ass saw that the huge beast could be assailed with impunity, he let drive at his forehead with his heels.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Ass	Ass	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	assailed	assail	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	impunity	impunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the Ass |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **assail** | could · passive |  | the huge beast |  |  |  | with impunity | vn attack-60.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **let** | past | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **drive** | infinitive | Lion *not said here* |  |  | Lion's forehead |  | with Lion's heels | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=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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