---
title: He assembled a good many Foxes and publicly advised them to cut off… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: He assembled a good many Foxes and publicly advised them to cut off their tails, saying that they would not only look much better without them, but that they would get rid of the weight of the brush, which was a very great inconvenience. Who acts: Fox, shame, brush. A sentence of «Three hundred Aeso
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, sentence 86

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He assembled a good many Foxes and publicly advised them to cut off their tails, saying that they would not only look much better without them, but that they would get rid of the weight of the brush, which was a very great inconvenience.

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**Who acts:** Fox, shame, brush · **What happens:** assemble, advise, cut off, say, not look, get · **To what, where:** good many Foxes, shame, tails, great inconvenience · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox, shame, brush), 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:pg21:4:86
# text = He assembled a good many Foxes and publicly advised them to cut off their tails, saying that they would not only look much better without them, but that they would get rid of the weight of the brush, which was a very great inconvenience.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	assembled	assemble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	Foxes	fox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	publicly	publicly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	advised	advise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
13	off	off	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
24	much	much	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	xcomp	_	_
26	without	without	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
34	rid	rid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	xcomp	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	brush	brush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
42	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	47	nsubj	_	_
43	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
45	very	very	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	inconvenience	inconvenience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assemble** | past | Fox | a good many Foxes |  |  |  |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent fox=Theme |
| 2 | **advise** *speech: other* | past | Fox *not said here* | shame |  |  |  | publicly *property* | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **cut off** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | shame *not said here* | shame's tails |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector tail=Eventuality |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | shame *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **look** | would | shame |  |  |  |  | without friends *= friend*; good *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 6 | **get** | would | shame |  |  |  |  | rid *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is a** | past | the brush and a great inconvenience | a great inconvenience |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «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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