---
title: She therefore besought him, saying, “Give me, I pray thee, a sting,… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: She therefore besought him, saying, “Give me, I pray thee, a sting, that if any mortal shall approach to take my honey, I may kill him.” Who acts: Jupiter, mortal. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, sentence 4

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She therefore besought him, saying, “Give me, I pray thee, a sting, that if any mortal shall approach to take my honey, I may kill him.”

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**Who acts:** Jupiter, mortal · **What happens:** beseech, say, give, pray, approach, take · **To what, where:** Olympus, Jupiter, thee, honey · **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 (Jupiter, mortal), 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:pg21:8:4
# text = She therefore besought him, saying, “Give me, I pray thee, a sting, that if any mortal shall approach to take my honey, I may kill him.”
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	besought	beseech	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sting	sting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	mortal	mortal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	approach	approach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beseech** | past | Jupiter | Olympus |  |  |  | therefore *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Jupiter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | Jupiter |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 4 | **pray** *in a quote* | present | Jupiter | thee |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **approach** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | shall | any mortal |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **take** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | any mortal *not said here* | my honey |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent honey=Theme |
| 7 | **kill** *in a quote* | may | Jupiter | Olympus |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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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