---
title: Upon this, the old man, vexed and ashamed, made the best of his way… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Upon this, the old man, vexed and ashamed, made the best of his way home again, convinced that by endeavoring to please everybody he had pleased nobody, and lost his Ass in the bargain. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, with its dependency 
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, sentence 61

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Upon this, the old man, vexed and ashamed, made the best of his way home again, convinced that by endeavoring to please everybody he had pleased nobody, and lost his Ass in the bargain.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** vex, make, endeavor, please, have, lose · **To what, where:** old man, best, everybody, nobody, Ass, bargain

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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 (man), 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:pg21:9:61
# text = Upon this, the old man, vexed and ashamed, made the best of his way home again, convinced that by endeavoring to please everybody he had pleased nobody, and lost his Ass in the bargain.
1	Upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	vexed	vex	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	ashamed	ashamed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
12	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	home	home	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	again	again	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	convinced	convinced	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	parataxis	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	endeavoring	endeavor	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	please	please	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	26	obj	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
30	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	Ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	bargain	bargain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **vex** | participle |  | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **make** | past |  | the best |  |  |  | upon the old man | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset good=Product |
| 3 | **endeavor** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **please** | to-infinitive |  | everybody |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus everybody=Experiencer |
| 5 | **have** | past | man | nobody |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nobody=Patient |
| 6 | **lose** | past |  | man's Ass |  | the bargain |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ass=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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