---
title: When the Ass persisted in his effort, the man let him go and said, “… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: When the Ass persisted in his effort, the man let him go and said, “Conquer, but conquer to your cost.” Who acts: Ass, man, friend, your. 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 54

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When the Ass persisted in his effort, the man let him go and said, “Conquer, but conquer to your cost.”

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**Who acts:** Ass, man, friend, your · **What happens:** persist, let, go, say, conquer, cost · **To what, where:** effort, friend · **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 (Ass, man, friend, your), 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:pg21:15:54
# text = When the Ass persisted in his effort, the man let him go and said, “Conquer, but conquer to your cost.”
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Ass	Ass	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	persisted	persist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	effort	effort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Conquer	conquer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	conquer	conquer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **persist** | past | the Ass |  |  | friend's effort |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive | the man | friend |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | friend *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | friend *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **conquer** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **conquer** *in a quote* | infinitive | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to your cost | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **cost** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom cost «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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