---
title: Mercury soon appeared and said to him, “O thou most base fellow? how… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Mercury soon appeared and said to him, “O thou most base fellow? how can I believe thee, who hast disowned and wronged thy former patron?” Who acts: Mercury, thou, base fellow. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, sentence 110

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mercury soon appeared and said to him, “O thou most base fellow? how can I believe thee, who hast disowned and wronged thy former patron?”

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**Who acts:** Mercury, thou, base fellow · **What happens:** appear, say, fellow, believe, disown, wrong · **To what, where:** Mercury, thee, former patron · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mercury, thou, base fellow), 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:pg21:13:110
# text = Mercury soon appeared and said to him, “O thou most base fellow? how can I believe thee, who hast disowned and wronged thy former patron?”
1	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
3	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	14	discourse	_	_
11	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	14	nsubj	_	_
12	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	14	advmod	_	_
13	base	base	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
16	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	acl:relcl	_	_
20	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	disowned	disown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	parataxis	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	wronged	wrong	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	conj	_	_
27	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	patron	patron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | past | Mercury |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Mercury *not said here* |  | Mercury |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 3 | **fellow** *in a quote* |  | thou |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **believe** *in a quote* | can | Mercury | thee |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thou=Stimulus |
| 5 | **disown** *in a quote* | present · perfect | base fellow |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **wrong** *in a quote* | participle | base fellow *not said here* | thy former patron |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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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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