The Aesop for Children, The Wolf and the Lamb, sentence 4

As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life.

Who acts: rule, Lamb, Wolf, excuse · What happens: snap up, make, look, feel, have, take · To what, where: such delicious morsels, bones, kind, life

This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Wolf and the Lamb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rule, Lamb, Wolf, excuse), 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	As	as	SCONJ	_	6 snapped	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 rule	det
3	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 snapped	nsubj
4	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Wolf	nmod:desc
5	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 rule	appos
6	snapped	snap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 looked	advcl
7	up	up	ADP	_	6 snapped	compound:prt
8	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 morsels	amod
9	delicious	delicious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 morsels	amod
10	morsels	morsel	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 snapped	obj
11	without	without	SCONJ	_	12 making	mark
12	making	make	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 snapped	advcl
13	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	14 bones	det
14	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 making	obj
15	about	about	ADP	_	16 it	case
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 bones	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 looked	punct
18	but	but	CCONJ	_	21 looked	cc
19	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	20 Lamb	det
20	Lamb	Lamb	PROPN	Number=Sing	21 looked	nsubj
21	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
22	so	so	ADV	_	24 helpless	advmod
23	very	very	ADV	_	24 helpless	advmod
24	helpless	helpless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 looked	xcomp
25	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 innocent	cc
26	innocent	innocent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 helpless	conj
27	that	that	SCONJ	_	30 felt	mark
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 Wolf	det
29	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	Number=Sing	30 felt	nsubj
30	felt	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 helpless	advcl
31	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	34 have	nsubj
32	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	34 have	aux
33	to	to	PART	_	34 have	mark
34	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 felt	ccomp
35	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	36 kind	det
36	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 have	obj
37	of	of	ADP	_	39 excuse	case
38	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	39 excuse	det
39	excuse	excuse	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 kind	nmod
40	for	for	SCONJ	_	41 taking	mark
41	taking	take	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	39 excuse	acl
42	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	43 life	nmod:poss
43	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 taking	obj
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	21 looked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	snap up	past	a rule	such delicious morsels		vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location morsel=Theme
2	make	gerund	a rule not said here	any bones	about rule	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset bone=Product
3	look	past	this Lamb		helpless property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
4	feel	past	the Wolf			vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
5	have	ought	Wolf	some kind of a excuse		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kind=Patient
6	take	gerund	a excuse not said here	Lamb's life		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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.

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