---
title: A GREAT CITY was besieged, and its inhabitants were called together… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: A GREAT CITY was besieged, and its inhabitants were called together to consider the best means of protecting it from the enemy. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 6, sentence 14

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A GREAT CITY was besieged, and its inhabitants were called together to consider the best means of protecting it from the enemy.

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**What happens:** besiege, call together, consider, mean, protect · **To what, where:** GREAT CITY, inhabitants, best, CITY · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg21:8:14
# text = A GREAT CITY was besieged, and its inhabitants were called together to consider the best means of protecting it from the enemy.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	GREAT	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	CITY	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	besieged	besiege	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	inhabitants	inhabitant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
12	together	together	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	consider	consider	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	14	obj	_	_
17	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	protecting	protect	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	ccomp	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **besiege** | past · passive |  | a GREAT CITY |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call together** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | CITY's inhabitants |  |  |  | together *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **consider** | to-infinitive |  | the best |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent good=Attribute |
| 4 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **protect** | gerund |  | CITY |  |  |  | from the enemy | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary from enemy=Theme |

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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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