---
title: Their feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they coul… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: Their feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they could not use their wings, nor release themselves, and were suffocated. Who acts: feet. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 1, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they could not use their wings, nor release themselves, and were suffocated.

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**Who acts:** feet · **What happens:** become, smear, not use, release, suffocate · **To what, where:** wings, feet

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (feet), 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:pg21:3:124
# text = Their feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they could not use their wings, nor release themselves, and were suffocated.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	smeared	smear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	xcomp	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	21	cc	_	_
21	release	release	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
22	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	suffocated	suffocate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | Flies's feet |  |  |  |  | however *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **smear** | participle | Flies's feet *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the honey | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent with honey=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **use** | could | feet *= foot* | feet's wings |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Patient |
| 4 | **release** | present | Flies's feet *not said here* | feet *= foot* |  |  |  |  | vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Causer themselves=Source |
| 5 | **suffocate** | past · passive | Flies's feet *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn suffocate-40.7 «NP.theme V» |

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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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