---
title: But the children could neither hear nor understand this, nor should… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the children could neither hear nor understand this, nor should they; for children must not know everything. Who acts: children. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flax, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flax, sentence 86

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But the children could neither hear nor understand this, nor should they; for children must not know everything.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** hear, understand, not know · **To what, where:** this, everything

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flax. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children), 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:pg27200:34:86
# text = But the children could neither hear nor understand this, nor should they; for children must not know everything.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	8	cc	_	_
8	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
9	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	19	cc	_	_
12	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
20	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | could | the children |  |  |  |  | neither *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **understand** | infinitive | the children *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **know** | must | children *= child* | everything |  |  |  | for children | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer everything=Stimulus |

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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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