---
title: A MOLE, a creature blind from birth, once said to his Mother: “I am… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A MOLE, a creature blind from birth, once said to his Mother: “I am sure than I can see, Mother!” Who acts: I. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, sentence 102

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A MOLE, a creature blind from birth, once said to his Mother: “I am sure than I can see, Mother!”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** say, be, see · **To what, where:** Mother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1. 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:pg21:3:102
# text = A MOLE, a creature blind from birth, once said to his Mother: “I am sure than I can see, Mother!”
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	MOLE	mole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	11	advmod	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
20	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | participle |  |  | driver's Mother |  |  | once *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to mother=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** *in a quote* | can | I | Mother |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mother=Stimulus |

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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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