---
title: No words he could say did the least good, so he cast about in his mi… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: 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. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Bundle of Sticks, with 
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Bundle of Sticks, sentence 2

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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.

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**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

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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 (Father, words, striking example, discord), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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 {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg19994:15:2
# text = 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.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
9	good	good	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	cast	cast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	about	about	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	in	in	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	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	striking	striking	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	example	example	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	discord	discord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	lead	lead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 |

<!-- .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:** «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.

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