---
title: “Why,” he replied, “I am in need of immediate help, and he is wont t… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why,” he replied, “I am in need of immediate help, and he is wont to give his good gifts very slowly.” Who acts: Mercury. 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 56

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“Why,” he replied, “I am in need of immediate help, and he is wont to give his good gifts very slowly.”

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**Who acts:** Mercury · **What happens:** reply, be, give, gift · **To what, where:** need, good gifts · **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 (Mercury), 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:pg21:12:56
# text = “Why,” he replied, “I am in need of immediate help, and he is wont to give his good gifts very slowly.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	advcl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	immediate	immediate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	wont	wont	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	gifts	gift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
26	very	very	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Mercury |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Mercury |  |  | need |  | of immediate help | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Mercury |  |  |  |  | wont *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Mercury *not said here* | Mercury's good gifts |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gift=Theme |
| 5 | **gift** *in a quote* |  | Mercury |  |  |  |  |  | nom gift «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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