---
title: In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance. — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance. Who acts: we. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, sentence 65

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In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** quarrel, lose · **To what, where:** substance

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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 (we), 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:pg21:8:65
# text = In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.
1	In	in	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	quarreling	quarrel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
3	about	about	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	often	often	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	lose	lose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	substance	substance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **quarrel** | gerund | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the shadow | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.theme NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent about shadow=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** | present | we | the substance |  |  |  | often *property* | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent substance=Eventuality |

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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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