---
title: The Scorpion, showing his sting, said: “If you had but touched me, m… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Scorpion, showing his sting, said: “If you had but touched me, my friend, you would have lost me, and all your locusts too!” Who acts: Scorpion, you. 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 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Scorpion, showing his sting, said: “If you had but touched me, my friend, you would have lost me, and all your locusts too!”

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**Who acts:** Scorpion, you · **What happens:** show, say, have, touch, lose, sting · **To what, where:** sting, friend, Scorpion · **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 (Scorpion, you), 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:pg21:3:85
# text = The Scorpion, showing his sting, said: “If you had but touched me, my friend, you would have lost me, and all your locusts too!”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Scorpion	Scorpion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	showing	show	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	sting	sting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux	_	_
24	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	30	det:predet	_	_
29	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	locusts	locust	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	ccomp	_	_
31	too	too	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** | gerund | the Scorpion *not said here* | Scorpion's sting |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent sting=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past | the Scorpion |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | you | my friend |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **touch** *in a quote* | past | you *not said here* | the Scorpion *= scorpion* |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme i=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **lose** *in a quote* | would · perfect | you | the Scorpion *= scorpion* |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Eventuality |
| 6 | **sting** |  | Scorpion |  |  |  |  |  | nom sting «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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