---
title: It matters little if those who are inferior to us in merit should be… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: It matters little if those who are inferior to us in merit should be like us in outside appearances. Who acts: It, those. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 14, sentence 67

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It matters little if those who are inferior to us in merit should be like us in outside appearances.

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**Who acts:** It, those · **What happens:** matter, be · **To what, where:** merit, us, outside appearances

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, those), 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:pg21:16:67
# text = It matters little if those who are inferior to us in merit should be like us in outside appearances.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	matters	matter	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	inferior	inferior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	merit	merit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
15	like	like	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	outside	outside	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	appearances	appearance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **matter** | present | It |  |  | merit |  | little *property* | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | those |  | us |  |  | inferior *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | should |  |  |  | outside appearances |  | like us | 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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