---
title: The Weasels accepted the challenge with eagerness, for they were alw… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: The Weasels accepted the challenge with eagerness, for they were always ready for a fight when a meal was in sight. Who acts: Weasels, meal. 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 7

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The Weasels accepted the challenge with eagerness, for they were always ready for a fight when a meal was in sight.

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**Who acts:** Weasels, meal · **What happens:** accept, be · **To what, where:** challenge, sight

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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 (Weasels, meal), 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:pg19994:55:7
# text = The Weasels accepted the challenge with eagerness, for they were always ready for a fight when a meal was in sight.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Weasels	weasel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	accepted	accept	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	challenge	challenge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	eagerness	eagerness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fight	fight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accept** | past | the Weasels | the challenge |  |  |  | with eagerness | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent challenge=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | Weasels *= weasel* |  |  |  |  | for a fight; always, ready *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | a meal |  |  | sight |  |  | tree rules |

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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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