---
title: Upon arriving at home they prepared to kill the Cock, who thus plead… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Upon arriving at home they prepared to kill the Cock, who thus pleaded for his life: “Pray spare me; I am very serviceable to men. Who acts: I, Thieves, Cock. 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 90

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Upon arriving at home they prepared to kill the Cock, who thus pleaded for his life: “Pray spare me; I am very serviceable to men.

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**Who acts:** I, Thieves, Cock · **What happens:** arrive, prepare, kill, plead, pray, spare · **To what, where:** home, Cock · **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 (I, Thieves, Cock), 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:pg21:9:90
# text = Upon arriving at home they prepared to kill the Cock, who thus pleaded for his life: “Pray spare me; I am very serviceable to men.
1	Upon	upon	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	arriving	arrive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	pleaded	plead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Pray	pray	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
21	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	very	very	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	serviceable	serviceable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrive** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  | home |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **prepare** | past | Thieves *= thief* | home *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent home=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Thieves *= thief* *not said here* | the Cock |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cock=Theme |
| 4 | **plead** *speech: request* | past | the Cock |  |  |  |  | for care's life; thus *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **pray** *in a quote* | infinitive | the Cock *= cock* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **spare** *in a quote* | infinitive | the Cock *= cock* *not said here* | the Cock *= cock* |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent i=Asset |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the Cock *= cock* |  |  |  |  | to men; serviceable *property* | tree rules |

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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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