Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 9, sentence 48

“I will tell you,” said the Thief, “but first let me ask you to hold my clothes, or I shall tear them to pieces.

Who acts: Thief · What happens: tell, say, let, ask, hold, tear · To what, where: you, Thief, clothes · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Thief), 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	“	"	PUNCT	_	4 tell	punct
2	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	4 tell	nsubj
3	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 tell	aux
4	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 said	ccomp
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 tell	iobj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 tell	punct
7	”	"	PUNCT	_	4 tell	punct
8	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Thief	det
10	Thief	thief	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 said	nsubj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 let	punct
12	“	"	PUNCT	_	15 let	punct
13	but	but	CCONJ	_	15 let	cc
14	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	15 let	advmod
15	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 said	ccomp
16	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	15 let	obj
17	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 let	xcomp
18	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	17 ask	iobj
19	to	to	PART	_	20 hold	mark
20	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 ask	xcomp
21	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 clothes	nmod:poss
22	clothes	clothes	NOUN	Number=Ptan	20 hold	obj
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 tear	punct
24	or	or	CCONJ	_	27 tear	cc
25	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	27 tear	nsubj
26	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	27 tear	aux
27	tear	tear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 let	conj
28	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 tear	obj
29	to	to	ADP	_	30 pieces	case
30	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 tear	obl
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert in a quote	future	the Thief = thief		you		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient
2	say speech: assert	past	the Thief				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	let in a quote	infinitive		the Thief = thief		first property	tree rules
4	ask speech: ask in a quote	infinitive	the Thief = thief not said here		you		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic
5	hold not said to happen, in a quote	to-infinitive	the Thief = thief not said here	my clothes			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=Theme
6	tear in a quote	shall	the Thief = thief	Thief		to pieces result	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent they=Patient to piece=Result

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: «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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