---
title: The Mule, groaning beneath his heavy burden, said to himself: “I am… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Mule, groaning beneath his heavy burden, said to himself: “I am treated according to my deserts. Who acts: Mule. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, sentence 24

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The Mule, groaning beneath his heavy burden, said to himself: “I am treated according to my deserts.

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**Who acts:** Mule · **What happens:** groan, say, treat, accord, burden · **To what, where:** heavy burden, Mule · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mule), 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:pg21:5:24
# text = The Mule, groaning beneath his heavy burden, said to himself: “I am treated according to my deserts.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Mule	mule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	groaning	groan	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	burden	burden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	treated	treat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
18	according	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	case	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	fixed	_	_
20	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	deserts	desert	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **groan** | gerund | the Mule *not said here* |  |  | Mule's heavy burden |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beneath burden=Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Mule |  | Mule |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 3 | **treat** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the Mule *= mule* |  |  |  | accord my deserts | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 4 | **accord** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **burden** |  | Mule |  |  |  |  |  | nom burden «cognition 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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