---
title: A CONTROVERSY prevailed among the beasts of the field as to which of… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A CONTROVERSY prevailed among the beasts of the field as to which of the animals deserved the most credit for producing the greatest number of whelps at a birth. Who acts: CONTROVERSY. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, sentence 128

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A CONTROVERSY prevailed among the beasts of the field as to which of the animals deserved the most credit for producing the greatest number of whelps at a birth.

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**Who acts:** CONTROVERSY · **What happens:** prevail, deserve, produce · **To what, where:** CONTROVERSY, credit, greatest number, birth

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (CONTROVERSY), 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:pg21:3:128
# text = A CONTROVERSY prevailed among the beasts of the field as to which of the animals deserved the most credit for producing the greatest number of whelps at a birth.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	CONTROVERSY	controversy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
3	prevailed	prevail	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	among	among	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:agent	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	deserved	deserve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	19	advmod	_	_
19	credit	credit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	producing	produce	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	advcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	amod	_	_
24	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	whelps	whelp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prevail** | participle |  | a CONTROVERSY *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **deserve** | past | a CONTROVERSY | the credit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **produce** | gerund | a CONTROVERSY *not said here* | the greatest number of whelps |  | a birth |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Result |

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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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