---
title: A FLY bit the bare head of a Bald Man who, endeavoring to destroy it… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A FLY bit the bare head of a Bald Man who, endeavoring to destroy it, gave himself a heavy slap. Who acts: FLY, Bald Man. 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 69

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A FLY bit the bare head of a Bald Man who, endeavoring to destroy it, gave himself a heavy slap.

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**Who acts:** FLY, Bald Man · **What happens:** bite, endeavor, destroy, give · **To what, where:** bare head, Fly, heavy slap, man

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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 (FLY, Bald Man), 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:pg21:16:69
# text = A FLY bit the bare head of a Bald Man who, endeavoring to destroy it, gave himself a heavy slap.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	FLY	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bit	bite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Bald	bald	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	endeavoring	endeavor	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	iobj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	slap	slap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bite** | past | a FLY | the bare head of a Bald Man |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **endeavor** | gerund | a Bald Man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **destroy** | to-infinitive | a Bald Man *not said here* | Fly |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **give** | past | a FLY *not said here* | a heavy slap | man |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent himself=Recipient slap=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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