---
title: This one possessed the sense of hearing to a very high degree: so ac… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: This one possessed the sense of hearing to a very high degree: so acute was this sense, that it was said he could hear the grass grow. Who acts: one, acute, Seer, grass. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 97

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This one possessed the sense of hearing to a very high degree: so acute was this sense, that it was said he could hear the grass grow.

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**Who acts:** one, acute, Seer, grass · **What happens:** possess, be, say, hear, grow, sense · **To what, where:** sense, acute, grass, hearing · **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 (one, acute, Seer, grass), 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:pg27200:143:97
# text = This one possessed the sense of hearing to a very high degree: so acute was this sense, that it was said he could hear the grass grow.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	possessed	possess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	hearing	hearing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	degree	degree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
15	acute	acute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **possess** | past | this one | the sense of hearing |  |  |  | to a high degree | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot sense=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | acute | this sense |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | acute |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **hear** | could | Seer | the grass |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **grow** | infinitive | the grass *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **sense** |  |  | hearing |  |  |  |  | nom sense «cognition transitive»: of=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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