---
title: No one could have expected the soul of the watchman to understand it… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: No one could have expected the soul of the watchman to understand it, and yet he did understand it, for our souls have much greater capabilities then we are inclined to believe. Who acts: watchman, souls. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Watchman's Advent
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No one could have expected the soul of the watchman to understand it, and yet he did understand it, for our souls have much greater capabilities then we are inclined to believe.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** watchman, souls · **What happens:** expect, understand, have, incline, believe · **To what, where:** one, soul, greater capabilities, we

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (watchman, souls), 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:pg27200:42:69
# text = No one could have expected the soul of the watchman to understand it, and yet he did understand it, for our souls have much greater capabilities then we are inclined to believe.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
5	expected	expect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	watchman	watchman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	souls	soul	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
25	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
26	much	much	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	28	amod	_	_
28	capabilities	capability	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
30	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	inclined	incline	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	advcl	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **expect** | could · perfect · passive |  | no one |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme soul=Eventuality |
| 2 | **understand** | to-infinitive |  | soul |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 3 | **understand** | past · do-support | watchman | soul |  |  | yet |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 4 | **have** | present | our souls | greater capabilities |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent capability=Patient |
| 5 | **incline** | present · passive |  | we |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **believe** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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