---
title: Then handing the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: Then handing the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try to break it. Who acts: discord, turn. 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 4

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Then handing the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try to break it.

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**Who acts:** discord, turn · **What happens:** hand, tell, try, break · **To what, where:** bundle, each, turn, Sons · **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 (discord, turn), 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:pg19994:15:4
# text = Then handing the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try to break it.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	handing	hand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bundle	bundle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	Sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hand** | gerund |  | the bundle |  | each | then |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent bundle=Theme to each=Destination |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | discord | turn *not said here* | Sons *= son* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **try** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | turn *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **break** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | turn *not said here* | bundle |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |

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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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