---
title: Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fe… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day. Who acts: something, Mice. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Belling the Cat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, Belling the Cat, sentence 3

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Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day.

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**Who acts:** something, Mice · **What happens:** have, do, live, dare, fear · **To what, where:** such constant fear, stir, dens, claws

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Belling the Cat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (something, Mice), 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:pg19994:8:3
# text = Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day.
1	Indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	constant	constant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
23	stir	stir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	dens	den	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | something |  |  |  |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive · passive | something *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V» |
| 3 | **live** | past | Mice *= mouse* |  |  | such constant fear of Cat's claws |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in fear=Location |
| 4 | **dare** | past | Mice *= mouse* | stir |  | Mice's dens | night | hardly *property* | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stir=Recipient |
| 5 | **fear** |  |  | Cat's claws |  |  |  |  | nom fear «feeling transitive»: of=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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