---
title: He appealed to the Ass to fly with him, lest they should both be cap… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: He appealed to the Ass to fly with him, lest they should both be captured, but the animal lazily replied, “Why should I, pray? Who acts: Ass, animal. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 8, sentence 101

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He appealed to the Ass to fly with him, lest they should both be captured, but the animal lazily replied, “Why should I, pray?

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**Who acts:** Ass, animal · **What happens:** appeal, fly, capture, reply, pray · **To what, where:** shepherds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ass, animal), 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:pg21:10:101
# text = He appealed to the Ass to fly with him, lest they should both be captured, but the animal lazily replied, “Why should I, pray?
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	appealed	appeal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	both	both	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	captured	capture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	lazily	lazily	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
26	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	pray	pray	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appeal** | past | Ass |  |  |  |  | to the Ass | vn appeal-31.4-2 «NP V PP.experiencer»: agent=Stimulus to ass=Experiencer |
| 2 | **fly** | to-infinitive | Ass *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with Ass | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **capture** | should · passive |  | shepherds *= shepherd* |  |  |  | both *property* | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **reply** *speech: ask* | past | the animal |  |  |  |  | lazily *property* | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **pray** *in a quote* | should | the animal *= animal* |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

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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:** «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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