---
title: "The less one knows, the less it presses upon one," said Mother Soren. — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "The less one knows, the less it presses upon one," said Mother Soren. Who acts: less one, mug, Mother. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family, sentence 175

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"The less one knows, the less it presses upon one," said Mother Soren.

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**Who acts:** less one, mug, Mother · **What happens:** know, press, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Poultry Meg's Family. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (less one, mug, Mother), 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:pg27200:149:175
# text = "The less one knows, the less it presses upon one," said Mother Soren.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	amod	_	_
4	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	presses	press	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	Mother	Mother	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
17	Soren	Soren	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *in a quote* | present | the less one |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **press** *in a quote* | present | mug |  |  |  |  | upon one; less *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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