---
title: The Mice on a word of command from their King, scattered themselves… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The Mice on a word of command from their King, scattered themselves without delay through the sleeping camp, and each one began to do as much destruction as he possibly could in the shortest possible space of time. Who acts: Mice, one. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Trave
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/20/49/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Folk tales from Tibet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/) / [The Country of the Mice.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/20/) / 49

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Country of the Mice., sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Mice on a word of command from their King, scattered themselves without delay through the sleeping camp, and each one began to do as much destruction as he possibly could in the shortest possible space of time.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mice, one · **What happens:** scatter, begin, do, word · **To what, where:** Mice, sleeping camp, much destruction, command

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Country of the Mice.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mice, one), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:20:49
# text = The Mice on a word of command from their King, scattered themselves without delay through the sleeping camp, and each one began to do as much destruction as he possibly could in the shortest possible space of time.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	_
14	without	without	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	delay	delay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	through	through	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	sleeping	sleeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	camp	camp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	det	_	_
23	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	as	as	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	destruction	destruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
36	shortest	short	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	38	amod	_	_
37	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scatter** | past | the Mice on a word of command from Mice's King | Mice *= mouse* |  | the sleeping camp |  | without delay | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme through camp=Destination |
| 2 | **begin** | past | each one |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | each one *not said here* | much destruction |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent destruction=Eventuality |
| 4 | **word** |  |  | command from Mice's King |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication 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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/20/48/)
- next →: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/20/50/)
- ↑ back to [The Country of the Mice.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/20/)