---
title: True, water is softer than your own delicate hands, and yet it polis… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: True, water is softer than your own delicate hands, and yet it polishes stones into shapes; it feels no pain as your fingers would feel, it has no soul, and cannot suffer such agony and torment as you will have to endure. Who acts: True water, water, it, fingers. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans C
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/54/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Wild Swans, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/) / 54

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
True, water is softer than your own delicate hands, and yet it polishes stones into shapes; it feels no pain as your fingers would feel, it has no soul, and cannot suffer such agony and torment as you will have to endure.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** True water, water, it, fingers, you · **What happens:** be, polish, feel, have, not suffer, endure · **To what, where:** stones, shapes, pain, soul, such agony

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Wild Swans, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (True water, water, it, fingers), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:209:54
# text = True, water is softer than your own delicate hands, and yet it polishes stones into shapes; it feels no pain as your fingers would feel, it has no soul, and cannot suffer such agony and torment as you will have to endure.
1	True	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	softer	soft	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
8	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	polishes	polish	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	shapes	shape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	feels	feel	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
32	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	33	det	_	_
33	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	suffer	suffer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
39	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	agony	agony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	torment	torment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	conj	_	_
43	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
44	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	advcl	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	endure	endure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | True water |  |  |  |  | than your own delicate hands; soft *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **polish** | present | water | stones |  | shapes | yet |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent stone=Destination |
| 3 | **feel** | present | it | no pain |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pain=Theme |
| 4 | **feel** | would | your fingers |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **have** | present | water | no soul |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soul=Patient |
| 6 | **not** **suffer** | can | water *not said here* | such agony and torment |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer agony=Stimulus |
| 7 | **have** | future | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **endure** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/55/)
- ↑ back to [The Wild Swans, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/209/)