---
title: "How can it be," he sighed, "that I should be cursed with such legs… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: "How can it be," he sighed, "that I should be cursed with such legs when I have so magnificent a crown." Who acts: Stag, I. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Stag and His Reflection, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Stag and His Reflection, sentence 3

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"How can it be," he sighed, "that I should be cursed with such legs when I have so magnificent a crown."

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**Who acts:** Stag, I · **What happens:** be, curse, have · **To what, where:** I, magnificent crown · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Stag and His Reflection. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Stag, I), 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:pg19994:53:3
# text = "How can it be," he sighed, "that I should be cursed with such legs when I have so magnificent a crown."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	sighed	sigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	cursed	curse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	crown	crown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | infinitive | Stag |  |  |  |  | sigh *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **curse** *in a quote* | should · passive |  | I |  |  |  | with such legs | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | I | a magnificent crown |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crown=Patient |

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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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