---
title: The other replied with greater caution, “But suppose the water shoul… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The other replied with greater caution, “But suppose the water should fail us. Who acts: water. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, sentence 29

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The other replied with greater caution, “But suppose the water should fail us.

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**Who acts:** water · **What happens:** reply, suppose, fail · **To what, where:** us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water), 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:pg21:9:29
# text = The other replied with greater caution, “But suppose the water should fail us.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
2	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
6	caution	caution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	suppose	suppose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	fail	fail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **suppose** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **fail** *in a quote* | should | the water | us |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=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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