The Aesop for Children, The Bundle of Sticks, sentence 2
No words he could say did the least good, so he cast about in his mind for some very striking example that should make them see that discord would lead them to misfortune.
Who acts: Father, words, striking example, discord · What happens: say, do, cast about, make, see, lead · To what, where: words, least good, mind, misfortune · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Bundle of Sticks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Father, words, striking example, discord), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Checked tree. This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (gutenberg:pg19994:109): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 2 words | det |
| 2 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 did | nsubj |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 say | nsubj |
| 4 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 say | aux |
| 5 | say | say | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 words | acl:relcl |
| 6 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 good | det |
| 8 | least | least | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 9 good | amod |
| 9 | good | good | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 did | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 cast | punct |
| 11 | so | so | ADV | _ | 13 cast | advmod |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 cast | nsubj |
| 13 | cast | cast | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 did | conj |
| 14 | about | about | ADV | _ | 13 cast | advmod |
| 15 | in | in | ADP | _ | 17 mind | case |
| 16 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 mind | nmod:poss |
| 17 | mind | mind | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 cast | obl |
| 18 | for | for | ADP | _ | 22 example | case |
| 19 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 22 example | det |
| 20 | very | very | ADV | _ | 21 striking | advmod |
| 21 | striking | striking | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 example | amod |
| 22 | example | example | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 cast | obl |
| 23 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 25 make | nsubj |
| 24 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 make | aux |
| 25 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 example | acl:relcl |
| 26 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 make | obj |
| 27 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 make | xcomp |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 31 lead | mark |
| 29 | discord | discord | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 lead | nsubj |
| 30 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 31 lead | aux |
| 31 | lead | lead | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 see | ccomp |
| 32 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 lead | obj |
| 33 | to | to | ADP | _ | 34 misfortune | case |
| 34 | misfortune | misfortune | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 lead | obl |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 did | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | could | Father | no words not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic | ||||
| 2 | do | past | no words | the least good | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | cast about | past | Father | Father's mind | for some striking example; about property | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for example=Beneficiary | |||
| 4 | make | should | some striking example | words = word | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | see | infinitive | words = word not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 6 | lead | would | discord | words = word | misfortune | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to misfortune=Destination | |||
| 7 | mind | Father | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
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.
Text: «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (public domain in the USA). Tree: the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/15/2/