---
title: He called a meeting of all the Foxes, saying that he had something o… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: He called a meeting of all the Foxes, saying that he had something of great importance to tell the tribe. Who acts: Fox. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox Without a Tail, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Fox Without a Tail, sentence 5

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He called a meeting of all the Foxes, saying that he had something of great importance to tell the tribe.

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**Who acts:** Fox · **What happens:** call, say, have, tell · **To what, where:** meeting, something, tribe · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Fox Without a Tail. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox), 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:pg19994:111:5
# text = He called a meeting of all the Foxes, saying that he had something of great importance to tell the tribe.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	meeting	meeting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Foxes	fox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
14	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	importance	importance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	acl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tribe	tribe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | Fox | a meeting of all Foxes |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent meeting=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Fox *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | past | Fox | something |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Patient |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Fox *not said here* | the tribe |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tribe=Recipient |

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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:** «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (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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