---
title: In despair the Mice called a council, and there it was decided that… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: In despair the Mice called a council, and there it was decided that the Mouse army was always beaten because it had no leaders. Who acts: Mice, army. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Mice and the Weasels, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Mice and the Weasels, sentence 3

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In despair the Mice called a council, and there it was decided that the Mouse army was always beaten because it had no leaders.

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**Who acts:** Mice, army · **What happens:** call, decide, beat, have · **To what, where:** council, despair, Mice, Mouse army, leaders · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Mice and the Weasels. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mice, army), 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:pg19994:55:3
# text = In despair the Mice called a council, and there it was decided that the Mouse army was always beaten because it had no leaders.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Mice	Mice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	council	council	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	Mouse	Mouse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
19	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	20	advmod	_	_
20	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	_
21	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	leaders	leader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | the Mice | a council |  | despair |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent council=Recipient |
| 2 | **decide** | past · passive |  | Mice |  | there |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Topic |
| 3 | **beat** | past · passive |  | the Mouse army |  |  |  | always *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | army | no leaders |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leader=Patient |

<!-- .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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