---
title: The Ass said, “Why, I saw the Monkey do this very thing yesterday, a… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Ass said, “Why, I saw the Monkey do this very thing yesterday, and you all laughed heartily, as if it afforded you very great amusement.” Who acts: Ass, Monkey, you. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/7/37/)

<!-- 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 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/7/) / 37

# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Ass said, “Why, I saw the Monkey do this very thing yesterday, and you all laughed heartily, as if it afforded you very great amusement.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Ass, Monkey, you · **What happens:** say, see, do, laugh, afford · **To what, where:** thing, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ass, Monkey, you), 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:pg21:7:37
# text = The Ass said, “Why, I saw the Monkey do this very thing yesterday, and you all laughed heartily, as if it afforded you very great amusement.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Monkey	Monkey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
22	heartily	heartily	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	afforded	afford	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	very	very	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	amusement	amusement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Ass |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | past | the Ass *= ass* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present | the Monkey | this thing  yesterday |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 4 | **laugh** *in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  | all, heartily *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **afford** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | Monkey | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/7/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/7/38/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop’s Fables, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/7/)