---
title: Miller, I had indeed to go campaigning before, but I was barbed from… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Miller, I had indeed to go campaigning before, but I was barbed from counter to tail, and a man went along to groom me; and now I cannot understand what ailed me to prefer the mill before the battle.” Who acts: Miller, man, I. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, pa
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/6/26/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Three hundred Aesop’s fables](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/) / [Aesop’s Fables, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/6/) / 26

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 4, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Miller, I had indeed to go campaigning before, but I was barbed from counter to tail, and a man went along to groom me; and now I cannot understand what ailed me to prefer the mill before the battle.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Miller, man, I · **What happens:** have, go, campaign, barb, go along, groom · **To what, where:** I, counter, me, mill · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Miller, man, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg21:6:26
# text = Miller, I had indeed to go campaigning before, but I was barbed from counter to tail, and a man went along to groom me; and now I cannot understand what ailed me to prefer the mill before the battle.”
1	Miller	Miller	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	campaigning	campaign	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	xcomp	_	_
9	before	before	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	barbed	barb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	counter	counter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
24	along	along	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	groom	groom	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
27	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
30	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	34	advmod	_	_
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
35	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	36	nsubj	_	_
36	ailed	ail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	ccomp	_	_
37	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	prefer	prefer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	advcl	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	_
42	before	before	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Miller |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | to-infinitive | Miller *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **campaign** | gerund | Miller *not said here* |  |  |  |  | before *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **barb** | past · passive |  | I |  | counter |  | to tail | tree rules |
| 5 | **go along** | past | a man |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **groom** | to-infinitive | a man *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn groom-41.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 7 | **not** **understand** | can | I |  |  |  | now |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 8 | **ail** | past |  | me |  |  |  |  | vn pain-40.8.1 «NP V NP.experiencer»: agent=Patient i=Experiencer |
| 9 | **prefer** | to-infinitive |  | the mill |  |  | before the battle |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mill=Stimulus |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/6/25/)
- next →: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/6/27/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/6/)