---
title: A certain Father had a family of Sons, who were forever quarreling a… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: A certain Father had a family of Sons, who were forever quarreling among themselves. Who acts: certain Father, Sons. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Bundle of Sticks, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Bundle of Sticks, sentence 1

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A certain Father had a family of Sons, who were forever quarreling among themselves.

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**Who acts:** certain Father, Sons · **What happens:** have, quarrel · **To what, where:** family

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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 (certain Father, Sons), 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:pg19994:15:1
# text = A certain Father had a family of Sons, who were forever quarreling among themselves.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Father	Father	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	quarreling	quarrel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl	_	_
14	among	among	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | a certain Father | a family of Sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent family=Patient |
| 2 | **quarrel** | past · progressive | Sons |  |  |  |  | among Sons *= son*; forever *property* | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (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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