---
title: So the same fact, "he died", can be said kindly, formally, in old-fa… — Soft words for hard things: death and dying · tree and pragmatics
description: So the same fact, "he died", can be said kindly, formally, in old-fashioned words or as a joke, and a clever listener hears both what happened and how the speaker feels about it. Who acts: word, clever listener, speaker. A sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the e
---

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# Soft words for hard things: death and dying, sentence 3

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So the same fact, "he died", can be said kindly, formally, in old-fashioned words or as a joke, and a clever listener hears both what happened and how the speaker feels about it.

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**Who acts:** word, clever listener, speaker · **What happens:** die, say, hear, happen, feel · **To what, where:** same fact, fashioned words · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (word, clever listener, speaker), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:euphemisms:001-death-polite-and-joking.lesson:3
# text = So the same fact, "he died", can be said kindly, formally, in old-fashioned words or as a joke, and a clever listener hears both what happened and how the speaker feels about it.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = euphemisms
# lesson = 001-death-polite-and-joking.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=4:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:'':_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	formally	formally	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	_
21	fashioned	fashioned	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	listener	listener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	hears	hear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
33	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc:preconj	_	_
34	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	35	nsubj	_	_
35	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
37	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	40	advmod	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	speaker	speaker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
40	feels	feel	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	conj	_	_
41	about	about	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obl	_	_
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** *in a quote* | past | word | the same fact *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | can · passive |  | the same fact |  | fashioned words or a joke |  | formally, kindly *property* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: subject=Theme in word=Manner |
| 3 | **hear** | present | a clever listener |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **happen** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **feel** | present | the speaker |  |  |  |  | about joke | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent about it=Location |

<!-- .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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**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:euphemisms:001-death-polite-and-joking.lesson:3`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

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- ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: death and…, 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/2/)
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