---
title: While they are made to depict the motives and passions of men, they… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: While they are made to depict the motives and passions of men, they retain, in an eminent degree, their own special features of craft or counsel, of cowardice or courage, of generosity or rapacity. Who acts: characters. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Literally Translated From
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Literally Translated From the Greek, sentence 38

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While they are made to depict the motives and passions of men, they retain, in an eminent degree, their own special features of craft or counsel, of cowardice or courage, of generosity or rapacity.

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**Who acts:** characters · **What happens:** make, depict, retain, feature · **To what, where:** characters, motives, eminent degree, craft

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Literally Translated From the Greek. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (characters), 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:pg21:1:38
# text = While they are made to depict the motives and passions of men, they retain, in an eminent degree, their own special features of craft or counsel, of cowardice or courage, of generosity or rapacity.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	depict	depict	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	motives	motive	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	passions	passion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	retain	retain	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	eminent	eminent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	degree	degree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
23	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	special	special	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	features	feature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	craft	craft	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	counsel	counsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	cowardice	cowardice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	courage	courage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	generosity	generosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
38	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	rapacity	rapacity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present · passive |  | characters *= character* |  |  |  | of cowardice or courage; of generosity or rapacity; characters's own special features of craft or counsel *obl* | tree rules |
| 2 | **depict** | to-infinitive | characters *= character* *not said here* | the motives and passions of men |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent motive=Theme |
| 3 | **retain** | present | characters *= character* |  |  | a eminent degree |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **feature** |  | characters *= character* | craft or counsel |  |  |  |  | nom feature «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient |

<!-- .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:** «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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