---
title: Then their father told them that in the world there was nothing but… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then their father told them that in the world there was nothing but toil and difficulty: that it was not quite what it appeared to them, as they looked upon it in their beautiful home. Who acts: father, nothing, difficulty, it. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 55

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Then their father told them that in the world there was nothing but toil and difficulty: that it was not quite what it appeared to them, as they looked upon it in their beautiful home.

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**Who acts:** father, nothing, difficulty, it, sons · **What happens:** tell, be, not be, appear, look · **To what, where:** sons, world, beautiful home · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, nothing, difficulty, it), 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:pg27200:143:55
# text = Then their father told them that in the world there was nothing but toil and difficulty: that it was not quite what it appeared to them, as they looked upon it in their beautiful home.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	_
11	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
12	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	11	nsubj	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	toil	toil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	parataxis	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
32	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | sons's father |  | sons *= son* |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | the world; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in world=Location |
| 3 | **not** **is a** | past | difficulty |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **appear** | past | it |  | sons *= son* |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **look** | past | sons *= son* |  |  | sons's beautiful home |  | upon difficulty | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent upon it=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.

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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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