---
title: "What use is it," said another, "to read the stars, when you can't s… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: "What use is it," said another, "to read the stars, when you can't see what's right here on the earth?" Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Astrologer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Astrologer, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"What use is it," said another, "to read the stars, when you can't see what's right here on the earth?"

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** use, be, say, read, not see · **To what, where:** use, another, stars, earth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Astrologer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), 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:pg19994:91:11
# text = "What use is it," said another, "to read the stars, when you can't see what's right here on the earth?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
3	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	21	mark	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	right	right	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	ccomp	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** *in a quote* |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | use |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  | another |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **read** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | the stars |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent star=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **see** *in a quote* | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  | the earth |  | here, right *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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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