---
title: _Do not foolishly ask for things that would bring ruin if they were… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: _Do not foolishly ask for things that would bring ruin if they were granted. Who acts: _, things. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Shepherd and the Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Shepherd and the Lion, sentence 12

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\_Do not foolishly ask for things that would bring ruin if they were granted.

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**Who acts:** \_, things · **What happens:** not ask, bring, grant · **To what, where:** ruin, things

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Shepherd and the Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (\_, things), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg19994:126:12
# text = _Do not foolishly ask for things that would bring ruin if they were granted.
1	_	_	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	Do	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	foolishly	foolishly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	ruin	ruin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	granted	grant	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive | \_ |  |  |  |  | for things; foolishly *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **bring** | would | things | ruin |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent ruin=Theme |
| 3 | **grant** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme |

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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.

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**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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