---
title: I know whom I may bully and whom I must flatter; and I thus prolong… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: I know whom I may bully and whom I must flatter; and I thus prolong my life to a good old age.” Who acts: I. 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 93

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I know whom I may bully and whom I must flatter; and I thus prolong my life to a good old age.”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** know, bully, flatter, prolong · **To what, where:** life · **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 (I), 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:pg21:15:93
# text = I know whom I may bully and whom I must flatter; and I thus prolong my life to a good old age.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	obj	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	bully	bully	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	flatter	flatter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	prolong	prolong	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **bully** | may | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **flatter** | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus whom=Experiencer |
| 4 | **prolong** | present | I | my life |  |  | to a good old age | thus *property* | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent life=Theme |

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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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