---
title: The Flea replied, “O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Flea replied, “O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not, for I cannot possibly do you much harm.” Who acts: Flea. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 13, sentence 139

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The Flea replied, “O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not, for I cannot possibly do you much harm.”

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**Who acts:** Flea · **What happens:** reply, pray, spare, not destroy, not do · **To what, where:** life, Flea, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Flea), 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:pg21:15:139
# text = The Flea replied, “O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not, for I cannot possibly do you much harm.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Flea	Flea	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	pray	pray	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
12	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	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 | the Flea |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pray** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **spare** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | my life |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent life=Asset |
| 4 | **not** **destroy** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the Flea *= flea* |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **do** *in a quote* | can | the Flea *= flea* | you |  |  |  | possibly *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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