---
title: THE PURCHASER of a black servant was persuaded that the color of his… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: THE PURCHASER of a black servant was persuaded that the color of his skin arose from dirt contracted through the neglect of his former masters. Who acts: color. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 4, sentence 109

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THE PURCHASER of a black servant was persuaded that the color of his skin arose from dirt contracted through the neglect of his former masters.

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**Who acts:** color · **What happens:** persuade, arise, contract, neglect · **To what, where:** PURCHASER, dirt, neglect, former masters

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (color), 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:pg21:6:109
# text = THE PURCHASER of a black servant was persuaded that the color of his skin arose from dirt contracted through the neglect of his former masters.
1	THE	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	PURCHASER	PURCHASER	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	persuaded	persuade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	color	color	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	arose	arise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	dirt	dirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	contracted	contract	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
19	through	through	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	neglect	neglect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **persuade** | past · passive |  | the PURCHASER of a black servant |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **arise** | past | the color of death's skin |  |  | dirt |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **contract** | participle |  | dirt *not said here* |  | the neglect of death's former masters |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **neglect** |  |  | death's former masters |  |  |  |  | nom neglect «cognition 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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