---
title: Just as they were expiring, they exclaimed, “O foolish creatures tha… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as they were expiring, they exclaimed, “O foolish creatures that we are, for the sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves.” Who acts: feet, we. 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 125

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just as they were expiring, they exclaimed, “O foolish creatures that we are, for the sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves.”

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**Who acts:** feet, we · **What happens:** expire, exclaim, destroy · **To what, where:** ourselves · **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 (feet, we), 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:pg21:3:125
# text = Just as they were expiring, they exclaimed, “O foolish creatures that we are, for the sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves.”
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	expiring	expire	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	O	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	13	case	_	_
12	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	csubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sake	sake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	destroyed	destroy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **expire** | past · progressive | feet *= foot* |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past | feet *= foot* |  |  |  |  | for the sake of a little pleasure | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **destroy** *in a quote* | present · perfect | we | ourselves |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ourselves=Patient |

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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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