---
title: “But for what purpose have I,” said the bird, “this dumb beauty so l… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: “But for what purpose have I,” said the bird, “this dumb beauty so long as I am surpassed in song?” Who acts: bird. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 10, sentence 40

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“But for what purpose have I,” said the bird, “this dumb beauty so long as I am surpassed in song?”

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**Who acts:** bird · **What happens:** have, say, surpass · **To what, where:** bird · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird), 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:pg21:12:40
# text = “But for what purpose have I,” said the bird, “this dumb beauty so long as I am surpassed in song?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
5	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
16	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	surpassed	surpass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present | the bird *= bird* |  |  |  |  | for purpose | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the bird |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **surpass** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the bird *= bird* |  |  |  | in song | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Theme in song=Attribute |

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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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