---
title: For some time the poor Goat lay helpless at the bottom of the crevic… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: For some time the poor Goat lay helpless at the bottom of the crevice, when by chance a Fox, who happened to be passing that way, heard him moaning and came to see what was wrong. Who acts: poor Goat, Fox, Goat. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The St
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/12/36/)

<!-- 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/) / [Folk tales from Tibet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/) / [The Story of How the Hare Made a Fool…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/12/) / 36

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of How the Hare Made a Fool of the Wolf., sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For some time the poor Goat lay helpless at the bottom of the crevice, when by chance a Fox, who happened to be passing that way, heard him moaning and came to see what was wrong.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor Goat, Fox, Goat · **What happens:** lie, happen, pass, hear, moan, come · **To what, where:** bottom, way, Goat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of How the Hare Made a Fool of the Wolf.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor Goat, Fox, Goat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:12:36
# text = For some time the poor Goat lay helpless at the bottom of the crevice, when by chance a Fox, who happened to be passing that way, heard him moaning and came to see what was wrong.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	Goat	Goat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	crevice	crevice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux	_	_
26	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
27	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
28	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
30	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	moaning	moan	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	xcomp	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	_
37	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	39	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
39	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | the poor Goat |  |  | the bottom of the crevice | time | helpless *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at bottom=Location |
| 2 | **happen** | past | a Fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **pass** | to-infinitive · progressive | a Fox *not said here* | that way |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme way=Trajectory |
| 4 | **hear** | past |  | Goat |  |  |  | by chance and a Fox | tree rules |
| 5 | **moan** | gerund | Goat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **come** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; wrong *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/12/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/12/37/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of How the Hare Made a Fool of the Wolf.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/12/)