---
title: With his last breath he said to himself, “I am rightly served; for w… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: With his last breath he said to himself, “I am rightly served; for what business had I who had never handled a net to try and catch fish?” Who acts: Necessity, business. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, sentence 130

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
With his last breath he said to himself, “I am rightly served; for what business had I who had never handled a net to try and catch fish?”

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**Who acts:** Necessity, business · **What happens:** say, serve, have, not handle, try, catch · **To what, where:** Necessity, fish · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Necessity, business), 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:pg21:8:130
# text = With his last breath he said to himself, “I am rightly served; for what business had I who had never handled a net to try and catch fish?”
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
13	rightly	rightly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	ccomp	_	_
18	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	handled	handle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	parataxis	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	net	net	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
31	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Necessity |  | Necessity |  |  | with Necessity's last breath | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 2 | **serve** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | Necessity |  |  |  | rightly *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Attribute |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | past | business |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **handle** *in a quote* | past · perfect · passive |  | Necessity |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **try** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **catch** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | fish |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Theme |

<!-- .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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