---
title: The King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles were again marshall… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles were again marshalling their hosts, but the ants were greatly reduced in numbers, and had little hope of holding out that day. Who acts: King, little hope. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, with its dep
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles were again marshalling their hosts, but the ants were greatly reduced in numbers, and had little hope of holding out that day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, little hope · **What happens:** marshall, reduce, have, hold out · **To what, where:** hosts, ants, numbers, little hope

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, little hope), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:24:50
# text = The King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles were again marshalling their hosts, but the ants were greatly reduced in numbers, and had little hope of holding out that day.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Ants	Ant	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Beetles	Beetle	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	marshalling	marshall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	hosts	host	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
22	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	reduced	reduce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	parataxis	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	det	_	_
35	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **marshall** | past · progressive | the King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles | Beetles's hosts |  |  | again |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reduce** | past · passive |  | the ants |  | numbers |  | greatly *property* | vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **have** | past |  | little hope |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hope=Patient |
| 4 | **hold out** | gerund | little hope *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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