---
title: A Fox asked him, “How can you pretend to prescribe for others, when… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A Fox asked him, “How can you pretend to prescribe for others, when you are unable to heal your own lame gait and wrinkled skin?” Who acts: Fox, Frog. 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 87

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A Fox asked him, “How can you pretend to prescribe for others, when you are unable to heal your own lame gait and wrinkled skin?”

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**Who acts:** Fox, Frog · **What happens:** ask, pretend, prescribe, be, heal, wrinkle · **To what, where:** Frog, own lame gait · **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 (Fox, Frog), 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:pg21:13:87
# text = A Fox asked him, “How can you pretend to prescribe for others, when you are unable to heal your own lame gait and wrinkled skin?”
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	pretend	pretend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	prescribe	prescribe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	19	mark	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	heal	heal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
23	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	lame	lame	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	gait	gait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	wrinkled	wrinkle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	amod	_	_
28	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a Fox |  | Frog |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pretend** *in a quote* | can | Frog |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **prescribe** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Frog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for others | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Frog |  |  |  |  | unable *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **heal** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Frog *not said here* | your own lame gait and wrinkled skin |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent gait=Patient |
| 6 | **wrinkle** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=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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