---
title: A TORTOISE, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea-birds o… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A TORTOISE, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea-birds of her hard fate, that no one would teach her to fly. Who acts: TORTOISE, one, bird. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, sentence 23

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A TORTOISE, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea-birds of her hard fate, that no one would teach her to fly.

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**Who acts:** TORTOISE, one, bird · **What happens:** complain, teach, fly, fate · **To what, where:** sea birds, bird

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (TORTOISE, one, bird), 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:pg21:4:23
# text = A TORTOISE, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea-birds of her hard fate, that no one would teach her to fly.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	TORTOISE	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	lazily	lazily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	basking	basking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	complained	complain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **complain** *speech: other* | participle | a TORTOISE and lazily basking in the sun |  | the sea birds of bird's hard fate |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to bird=Recipient |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* | would | no one |  | bird |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fly** | to-infinitive | no one *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fate** |  | bird |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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