---
title: Some people feel numb at first, as if their feelings were switched o… — When someone dies: guilt, numbness and waves of… · tree and pragmatics
description: Some people feel numb at first, as if their feelings were switched off, because the mind protects itself from too much at once; the tears can come weeks later. Who acts: people, mind, tears. A sentence of the lesson «When someone dies: guilt, numbness and waves of grief» of the reflection course of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/1-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Reflection](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/) / [When someone dies: guilt, numbness and…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/1-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief/) / 11

# When someone dies: guilt, numbness and waves of grief, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Some people feel numb at first, as if their feelings were switched off, because the mind protects itself from too much at once; the tears can come weeks later.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, mind, tears · **What happens:** feel, switch off, protect, come · **To what, where:** feelings, mind

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «When someone dies: guilt, numbness and waves of grief» of the reflection 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 (people, mind, tears), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:reflection:001-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief.lesson:11
# text = Some people feel numb at first, as if their feelings were switched off, because the mind protects itself from too much at once; the tears can come weeks later.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = reflection
# lesson = 001-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief.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): R5-strong ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	feel	feel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	numb	numb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	feelings	feeling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	switched	switch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	protects	protect	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
20	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	too	too	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	obl	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=19:obl|HaikuPos=ADV:RB:_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	19	obl	_	_
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
29	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=3:conj
31	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl:unmarked	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=30:obl:unmarked
32	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	30	advmod	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | present | some people |  |  |  |  | numb *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **switch off** | past · passive |  | people's feelings |  |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **protect** | present | the mind | mind |  |  |  | from much | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent itself=Beneficiary from much=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | can | the tears |  |  |  |  | late *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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:reflection:001-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief.lesson:11`.

**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): R5-strong ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1, R8-pos-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/).

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [When someone dies: guilt, numbness and…, 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/1-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief/10/)
- next →: [When someone dies: guilt, numbness and…, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/1-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief/12/)
- ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/1-when-someone-dies-guilt-numbness-and-waves-of-grief/)