---
title: So when they saw the Birds getting the better of it, they were Birds… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: So when they saw the Birds getting the better of it, they were Birds for all there was in it. Who acts: Chickens, Birds. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So when they saw the Birds getting the better of it, they were Birds for all there was in it.

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**Who acts:** Chickens, Birds · **What happens:** see, get, be · **To what, where:** Birds, race

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Chickens, Birds), 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:pg19994:45:11
# text = So when they saw the Birds getting the better of it, they were Birds for all there was in it.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	getting	get	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	xcomp	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	all	all	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Chickens *= chicken* | the Birds |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bird=Stimulus |
| 2 | **get** | gerund | the Birds *not said here* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | past | Chickens *= chicken* | Birds |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** | past | Chickens *= chicken* *not said here* |  |  | race; there |  | all *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in it=Location |

<!-- .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:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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