The Aesop for Children, The Ass and His Driver, sentence 1
An Ass was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path.
Who acts: road, he · What happens: drive, lead, take, choose · To what, where: Ass, road, mountain side, silly head, own path
This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Ass and His Driver. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (road, he), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
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
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 Ass | det |
| 2 | Ass | ass | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 driven | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 driven | aux:pass |
| 4 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 driven | aux:pass |
| 5 | driven | drive | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | along | along | ADP | _ | 8 road | case |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 road | det |
| 8 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 driven | obl |
| 9 | leading | lead | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 8 road | acl |
| 10 | down | down | ADP | _ | 13 side | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 side | det |
| 12 | mountain | mountain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 side | compound |
| 13 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 leading | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 took | punct |
| 15 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 18 took | advmod |
| 16 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 took | nsubj |
| 17 | suddenly | suddenly | ADV | _ | 18 took | advmod |
| 18 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 driven | conj |
| 19 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 took | obj |
| 20 | into | into | ADP | _ | 23 head | case |
| 21 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 head | nmod:poss |
| 22 | silly | silly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 head | amod |
| 23 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 took | obl |
| 24 | to | to | PART | _ | 25 choose | mark |
| 25 | choose | choose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 took | advcl |
| 26 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 path | nmod:poss |
| 27 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 path | amod |
| 28 | path | path | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 choose | obj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 driven | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | drive | past · passive | a Ass | a road | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme along road=Trajectory | ||||
| 2 | lead | gerund | a road not said here | the mountain side | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent down side=Destination | ||||
| 3 | take | past | he | Ass | his silly head | suddenly property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme into head=Destination | ||
| 4 | choose | to-infinitive | he not said here | his own path | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Theme |
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.
Text: «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/17/1/