---
title: “What a selfish Dog!” said one of them to his companions; “he cannot… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: “What a selfish Dog!” said one of them to his companions; “he cannot eat the hay himself, and yet refuses to allow those to eat who can.” Who acts: selfish Dog, Dog, those. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, sentence 52

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“What a selfish Dog!” said one of them to his companions; “he cannot eat the hay himself, and yet refuses to allow those to eat who can.”

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**Who acts:** selfish Dog, Dog, those · **What happens:** say, not eat, refuse, not allow, eat · **To what, where:** one, hay, those · **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 (selfish Dog, Dog, those), 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:pg21:4:52
# text = “What a selfish Dog!” said one of them to his companions; “he cannot eat the hay himself, and yet refuses to allow those to eat who can.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	5	det:predet	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	selfish	selfish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	Dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
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	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	hay	hay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	refuses	refuse	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
33	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
34	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | what selfish Dog | one of bystanders |  |  |  | to Dog's companions | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **eat** *in a quote* | can | Dog | the hay |  |  |  | Dog *obl:unmarked* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hay=Patient |
| 3 | **refuse** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  | yet |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **allow** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | those |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer that=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **eat** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | those *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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