---
title: An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companion… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar, “The first step has lost us all. Who acts: old oak. 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 70

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An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar, “The first step has lost us all.

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**Who acts:** old oak · **What happens:** lament, say, neighbor, lose, destroy · **To what, where:** destruction, neighboring cedar, first step, companions · **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 (old oak), 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:pg21:10:70
# text = An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar, “The first step has lost us all.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	lamenting	lament	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	destruction	destruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	neighboring	neighbor	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	amod	_	_
19	cedar	cedar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	24	amod	_	_
24	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
27	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lament** | gerund | a old oak *not said here* | the destruction of MAN's companions |  |  |  | late *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer destruction=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a old oak |  | a neighboring cedar |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to cedar=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **neighbor** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **lose** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | the first step |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **destroy** |  |  | MAN's companions |  |  |  |  | nom destruction «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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