---
title: A FLY sat on the axle-tree of a chariot, and addressing the Draught-… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A FLY sat on the axle-tree of a chariot, and addressing the Draught-Mule said, “How slow you are! Who acts: FLY, addressing, you. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, sentence 7

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A FLY sat on the axle-tree of a chariot, and addressing the Draught-Mule said, “How slow you are!

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**Who acts:** FLY, addressing, you · **What happens:** sit, address, say, be · **To what, where:** axle tree, Draught Mule · **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 (FLY, addressing, you), 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:pg21:13:7
# text = A FLY sat on the axle-tree of a chariot, and addressing the Draught-Mule said, “How slow you are!
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	FLY	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	axle	axle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	chariot	chariot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	addressing	address	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	csubj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	Draught	draught	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
23	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	ccomp	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
25	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | a FLY |  |  | the axle tree of a chariot |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on tree=Location |
| 2 | **address** | gerund |  |  | the Draught Mule |  |  |  | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mule=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | addressing |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | slow *property* | tree rules |

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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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