---
title: But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. Who acts: pitcher, matter. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Crow and the Pitcher, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Crow and the Pitcher, sentence 2

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But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water.

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**Who acts:** pitcher, matter · **What happens:** be, have, try, not reach · **To what, where:** narrow neck, Crow, water

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Crow and the Pitcher. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pitcher, matter), 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:pg19994:33:2
# text = But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	pitcher	pitcher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the pitcher |  |  |  |  | high *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | the pitcher *not said here* | a narrow neck |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent neck=Patient |
| 3 | **try** | past | matter | the Crow |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crow=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **reach** | could | no matter | the water |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent water=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «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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