---
title: The Fish, panting convulsively, thus entreated for his life: “O Sir,… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: The Fish, panting convulsively, thus entreated for his life: “O Sir, what good can I be to you, and how little am I worth? Who acts: Fish, Doe. 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 8

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The Fish, panting convulsively, thus entreated for his life: “O Sir, what good can I be to you, and how little am I worth?

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**Who acts:** Fish, Doe · **What happens:** pant, entreat, be · **To what, where:** Sir · **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 (Fish, Doe), 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:pg21:9:8
# text = The Fish, panting convulsively, thus entreated for his life: “O Sir, what good can I be to you, and how little am I worth?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Fish	Fish	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	panting	pant	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	convulsively	convulsively	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	entreated	entreat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	_
15	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	nsubj	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
19	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	_
28	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pant** | gerund | the Fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | convulsively *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **entreat** | past | the Fish | Sir |  |  |  | for Fish's life; thus *property* | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | can | the Doe *= doe* |  |  |  |  | to you | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the Doe *= doe* |  |  |  |  | worth *property* | tree rules |

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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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