---
title: But the Earthen Pot excused himself, saying that it would be wiser f… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Earthen Pot excused himself, saying that it would be wiser for him to stay in the corner by the fire. Who acts: Earthen Pot, world, him. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Two Pots, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Two Pots, sentence 3

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But the Earthen Pot excused himself, saying that it would be wiser for him to stay in the corner by the fire.

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**Who acts:** Earthen Pot, world, him · **What happens:** excuse, say, be, stay · **To what, where:** himself, corner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Two Pots. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Earthen Pot, world, him), 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:pg19994:81:3
# text = But the Earthen Pot excused himself, saying that it would be wiser for him to stay in the corner by the fire.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	Earthen	Earthen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Pot	Pot	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	excused	excuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
13	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	ccomp	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **excuse** | past | the Earthen Pot | himself *= he* |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the Earthen Pot *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | would | world |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **stay** | to-infinitive | him *= he* |  |  | the corner |  | by the fire | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in corner=Location |

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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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