---
title: They fiercely disputed which of them should drink first, and were so… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: They fiercely disputed which of them should drink first, and were soon engaged in the agonies of a mortal combat. Who acts: beasts. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, sentence 82

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They fiercely disputed which of them should drink first, and were soon engaged in the agonies of a mortal combat.

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**Who acts:** beasts · **What happens:** dispute, drink, engage · **To what, where:** agonies

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beasts), 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:pg21:7:82
# text = They fiercely disputed which of them should drink first, and were soon engaged in the agonies of a mortal combat.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	fiercely	fiercely	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	disputed	dispute	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
9	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
13	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
14	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	agonies	agony	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	mortal	mortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	combat	combat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dispute** | past | beasts *= beast* |  |  |  |  | fiercely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **drink** | should | beasts *= beast* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of beasts *= beast*; first *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Patient |
| 3 | **engage** | past · passive | beasts *= beast* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the agonies of a mortal combat *goal*; soon *property* | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP PP.goal»: in agony=Goal |

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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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