---
title: If you had as many brains in your head as you have hairs in your bea… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: If you had as many brains in your head as you have hairs in your beard, you would never have gone down before you had inspected the way up, nor have exposed yourself to dangers from which you had no means of escape.” Who acts: you. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fable
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If you had as many brains in your head as you have hairs in your beard, you would never have gone down before you had inspected the way up, nor have exposed yourself to dangers from which you had no means of escape.”

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** have, not go down, inspect up, expose, mean · **To what, where:** many brains, head, hairs, beard, way, yourself · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (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:pg21:4:38
# text = If you had as many brains in your head as you have hairs in your beard, you would never have gone down before you had inspected the way up, nor have exposed yourself to dangers from which you had no means of escape.”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	brains	brain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
13	hairs	hair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	43	csubj	_	_
23	down	down	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	inspected	inspect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	up	up	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	34	cc	_	_
33	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	exposed	expose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	_
35	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	34	obj	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	dangers	danger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
38	from	from	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	41	obl	_	_
40	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	acl:relcl	_	_
42	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	41	obj	_	_
43	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	43	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you | many brains |  | your head |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brain=Patient |
| 2 | **have** | present | you | hairs |  | your beard |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **go down** | would · perfect | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **inspect up** | past · perfect | you | the way |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **expose** | present · perfect | you *not said here* | yourself | dangers |  |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent yourself=Theme to danger=Recipient |
| 6 | **have** | past | you | no |  | dangers |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent no=Patient |
| 7 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of escape | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=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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