---
title: He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks o… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of his footsteps or knew where his lair was. Who acts: Lion, man, lair. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, sentence 15

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He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of his footsteps or knew where his lair was.

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**Who acts:** Lion, man, lair · **What happens:** ask, fell, see, know, be, mark · **To what, where:** man, oaks, forest, marks, footsteps · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, man, lair), 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:pg21:9:15
# text = He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of his footsteps or knew where his lair was.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	felling	fell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	oaks	oak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	marks	mark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	footsteps	footstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	20	ccomp	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	lair	lair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Lion |  | a man |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent man=Recipient |
| 2 | **fell** | gerund | a man *not said here* | oaks |  | the forest |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | Lion | any marks of Lion's footsteps |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mark=Stimulus |
| 4 | **know** | past | Lion *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | Lion's lair |  |  |  |  | where *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **mark** |  |  | Lion's footsteps |  |  |  |  | nom mark «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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