---
title: But though he washed and washed all day long, almost drowning himsel… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But though he washed and washed all day long, almost drowning himself at it, his feathers remained as black as ever. Who acts: bird, feathers. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, A Raven and a Swan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, A Raven and a Swan, sentence 4

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But though he washed and washed all day long, almost drowning himself at it, his feathers remained as black as ever.

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**Who acts:** bird, feathers · **What happens:** wash, drown, remain · **To what, where:** bird, home

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, A Raven and a Swan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, feathers), 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:pg19994:36:4
# text = But though he washed and washed all day long, almost drowning himself at it, his feathers remained as black as ever.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
2	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	washed	wash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	washed	wash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	drowning	drown	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
13	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	obl	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wash** | past | bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wash** | past | bird *not said here* |  |  |  | day | long *property* | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **drown** | gerund | bird *not said here* | bird |  | home |  | almost *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 4 | **remain** | past | bird's feathers |  |  |  |  | as black | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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:** «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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