---
title: But we may comfort ourselves by the certainty that the soul, when ac… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But we may comfort ourselves by the certainty that the soul, when acting upon its own impulses, is wiser than we are; it is the body that makes it stupid. Who acts: we, notice, body. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures, with its depende
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/42/88/)

<!-- 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 Watchman's Adventures](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/42/) / 88

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Watchman's Adventures, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But we may comfort ourselves by the certainty that the soul, when acting upon its own impulses, is wiser than we are; it is the body that makes it stupid.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, notice, body · **What happens:** comfort, act, be, make · **To what, where:** ourselves, body, notice

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (we, notice, body), 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:pg27200:42:88
# text = But we may comfort ourselves by the certainty that the soul, when acting upon its own impulses, is wiser than we are; it is the body that makes it stupid.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	comfort	comfort	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	certainty	certainty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
14	acting	act	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
15	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	impulses	impulse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	parataxis	_	_
22	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
31	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **comfort** | may | we | ourselves |  |  |  | by the certainty  the soul | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus ourselves=Experiencer |
| 2 | **act** | gerund | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon notice's own impulses | vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | present | notice | the body |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **make** | present | the body | notice |  |  |  | stupid *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |

<!-- .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 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/42/87/)
- next →: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/42/89/)
- ↑ back to [The Watchman's Adventures](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/42/)