---
title: These things often harden the character, but sometimes soften the he… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: These things often harden the character, but sometimes soften the heart, even too much. Who acts: things. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap, sentence 141

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These things often harden the character, but sometimes soften the heart, even too much.

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**Who acts:** things · **What happens:** harden, soften · **To what, where:** character, heart

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old Bachelor's Nightcap. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (things), 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:pg27200:128:141
# text = These things often harden the character, but sometimes soften the heart, even too much.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	harden	harden	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	10	advmod	_	_
10	soften	soften	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	even	even	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	too	too	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **harden** | present | this things | the character |  |  |  | often *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent character=Patient |
| 2 | **soften** | infinitive | this things *not said here* | the heart |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent heart=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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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