---
title: But when the villagers knew the creature to be an ass, they beat him… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But when the villagers knew the creature to be an ass, they beat him till his bones broke; and, carrying off the lion's skin, went away. Who acts: villagers, bones, carrying. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 16, with its dependency tree and the 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/22/7/)

<!-- 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/) / [Indian Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/) / [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/22/) / 7

# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 16, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when the villagers knew the creature to be an ass, they beat him till his bones broke; and, carrying off the lion's skin, went away.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** villagers, bones, carrying · **What happens:** know, be, beat, break, carry off, go away · **To what, where:** creature, ass, skin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (villagers, bones, carrying), 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:pg7128:22:7
# text = But when the villagers knew the creature to be an ass, they beat him till his bones broke; and, carrying off the lion's skin, went away.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	villagers	villager	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	beat	beat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	csubj	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	's	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
30	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
31	away	away	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | the villagers | the creature |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer creature=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | a ass |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **beat** | present | villagers *= villager* | ass |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location he=Theme |
| 4 | **break** | past | ass's bones |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **carry off** | gerund |  | the lion's skin |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Theme |
| 6 | **go away** | past | carrying |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/22/6/)
- next →: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/22/8/)
- ↑ back to [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/22/)