---
title: The old gentleman said: "It is true; I am a hardened sinner. — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old gentleman said: "It is true; I am a hardened sinner. Who acts: old gentleman, chair. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, sentence 29

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The old gentleman said: "It is true; I am a hardened sinner.

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**Who acts:** old gentleman, chair · **What happens:** say, be, harden · **To what, where:** hardened sinner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old gentleman, chair), 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:pg14241:32:29
# text = The old gentleman said: "It is true; I am a hardened sinner.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	hardened	harden	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	amod	_	_
15	sinner	sinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old gentleman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | chair |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **harden** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the old gentleman *= gentleman* | a hardened sinner |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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