---
title: “Then,” said the Ass, “as long as I carry the panniers, what matters… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: “Then,” said the Ass, “as long as I carry the panniers, what matters it to me whom I serve?” Who acts: Ass. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/10/104/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Three hundred Aesop’s fables](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/) / [Aesop’s Fables, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/10/) / 104

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 8, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Then,” said the Ass, “as long as I carry the panniers, what matters it to me whom I serve?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Ass · **What happens:** say, carry, matter, serve · **To what, where:** panniers, conqueror, Ass · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg21:10:104
# text = “Then,” said the Ass, “as long as I carry the panniers, what matters it to me whom I serve?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	as	as	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	carry	carry	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	panniers	pannier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	nsubj	_	_
19	matters	matter	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
23	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	serve	serve	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the Ass |  |  |  | then | long *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **carry** *in a quote* | present | the Ass *= ass* | the panniers |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pannier=Theme |
| 3 | **matter** *in a quote* | present |  | conqueror | the Ass *= ass* |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **serve** *in a quote* | present | the Ass *= ass* |  |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Attribute |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/10/103/)
- next →: [sentence 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/10/105/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/10/)