---
title: But cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: But cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change their color, while through want of food he perished. Who acts: Goat. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 2, sentence 43

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But cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change their color, while through want of food he perished.

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**Who acts:** Goat · **What happens:** cleanse, not change, perish, want · **To what, where:** feathers, color, want, food

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Goat), 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:pg21:4:43
# text = But cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change their color, while through want of food he perished.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	cleansing	cleanse	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	as	as	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	often	often	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	color	color	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	through	through	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	want	want	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	perished	perish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cleanse** | gerund | Goat *not said here* | Goat's feathers |  |  |  | often *property* | vn groom-41.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **change** | could | Goat | feathers's color |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent color=Patient |
| 3 | **perish** | past | Goat |  |  | want of food |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **want** |  |  | food |  |  |  |  | nom want «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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