---
title: THE MICE summoned a council to decide how they might best devise mea… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: THE MICE summoned a council to decide how they might best devise means of warning themselves of the approach of their great enemy the Cat. Who acts: MICE, great enemy. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 5, sentence 86

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THE MICE summoned a council to decide how they might best devise means of warning themselves of the approach of their great enemy the Cat.

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**Who acts:** MICE, great enemy · **What happens:** summon, decide, mean, warn, approach · **To what, where:** council, approach · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (MICE, great enemy), 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:pg21:7:86
# text = THE MICE summoned a council to decide how they might best devise means of warning themselves of the approach of their great enemy the Cat.
1	THE	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	MICE	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	summoned	summon	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	council	council	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	decide	decide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
8	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	amod	_	_
12	devise	devise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	appos	_	_
13	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	warning	warning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
16	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	15	nmod:unmarked	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	approach	approach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **summon** | past | the MICE | a council |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent council=Recipient |
| 2 | **decide** | to-infinitive | the MICE *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **mean** | present | Mice *= mouse* |  |  |  |  | of warning  Mice of the approach of Mice's great enemy | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **warn** |  |  | the approach of Mice's great enemy |  |  |  |  | nom warning «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **approach** |  | Mice's great enemy |  |  |  |  |  | nom approach «act intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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