---
title: He told them that, by searching, man could attain to a knowledge of… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He told them that, by searching, man could attain to a knowledge of the existence of God, and that it was in the power of every man to discover the certainty that such a jewel as the philosopher's stone really existed. Who acts: splendor, man, existence, certainty. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 58

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He told them that, by searching, man could attain to a knowledge of the existence of God, and that it was in the power of every man to discover the certainty that such a jewel as the philosopher's stone really existed.

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**Who acts:** splendor, man, existence, certainty, God · **What happens:** tell, search, attain, be, discover, exist · **To what, where:** jewel, power, certainty · **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 (splendor, man, existence, certainty), 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:pg27200:143:58
# text = He told them that, by searching, man could attain to a knowledge of the existence of God, and that it was in the power of every man to discover the certainty that such a jewel as the philosopher's stone really existed.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	searching	search	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	attain	attain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	existence	existence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	det	_	_
30	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	certainty	certainty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	45	nsubj	_	_
36	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	38	det:predet	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	jewel	jewel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
39	as	as	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	philosopher	philosopher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	's	's	PART	POS	_	41	case	_	_
43	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
44	really	really	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
45	existed	exist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | splendor |  | jewel |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **search** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **attain** | could | man |  |  |  |  | to a knowledge of the existence of God | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | existence |  |  | the power |  | of every man | tree rules |
| 5 | **discover** | to-infinitive | splendor *not said here* | the certainty |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent certainty=Topic |
| 6 | **exist** | past | the certainty |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **exist** |  | God |  |  |  |  |  | nom existence «state intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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