---
title: Being naturally great mimics of men’s actions, they showed themselve… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Being naturally great mimics of men’s actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers. Who acts: great mimics, mimics, men. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, wi
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 7, sentence 96

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Being naturally great mimics of men’s actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers.

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**Who acts:** great mimics, mimics, men · **What happens:** be, show, array, dance, act · **To what, where:** great mimics, mimics, rich clothes

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great mimics, mimics, men), 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:pg21:9:96
# text = Being naturally great mimics of men’s actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers.
1	Being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	cop	_	_
2	naturally	naturally	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	mimics	mimic	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’s	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	actions	action	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	14	advmod	_	_
14	apt	apt	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	pupils	pupil	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
19	arrayed	array	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	19	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	masks	mask	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
29	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	32	cc	_	_
30	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	fixed	_	_
31	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	fixed	_	_
32	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | gerund |  | great mimics |  |  |  | of men's actions; naturally *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **show** | past | great mimics | mimics *= mimic* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Recipient pupil=Topic |
| 3 | **array** | participle | great mimics *not said here* |  |  | mimics's rich clothes and masks |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **dance** | past | mimics *= mimic* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **act** |  | men |  |  |  |  |  | nom action «act intransitive»: poss=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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