---
title: It is not easy to keep such secrets; they are like sand in a sieve;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It is not easy to keep such secrets; they are like sand in a sieve; they slip out. Who acts: secrets. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, IV. Babette, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, IV. Babette, sentence 20

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It is not easy to keep such secrets; they are like sand in a sieve; they slip out.

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**Who acts:** secrets · **What happens:** not be, keep, be, slip out · **To what, where:** such secrets, sieve

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, IV. Babette. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (secrets), 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:pg27200:55:20
# text = It is not easy to keep such secrets; they are like sand in a sieve; they slip out.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
7	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	secrets	secret	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sieve	sieve	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	slip	slip	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | such secrets |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | present | secrets *= secret* |  |  | a sieve |  | like sand | tree rules |
| 4 | **slip out** | present | secrets *= secret* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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