---
title: While they were playing one day as children, they happened by chance… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: While they were playing one day as children, they happened by chance to look together into a mirror that was placed on their mother’s chair. Who acts: son. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 11, sentence 43

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While they were playing one day as children, they happened by chance to look together into a mirror that was placed on their mother’s chair.

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**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** play, happen, look, place · **To what, where:** mirror, chair

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son), 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:pg21:13:43
# text = While they were playing one day as children, they happened by chance to look together into a mirror that was placed on their mother’s chair.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl	_	_
16	together	together	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’s	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	chair	chair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | son |  |  |  | day | as children | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **happen** | past | son |  |  |  |  | by chance | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by chance=Location |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive | son *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into a mirror; together *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into mirror=Theme |
| 4 | **place** | past · passive |  | a mirror |  | son's mother's chair |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme on chair=Destination |

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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:** «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 21 (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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