---
title: Our reason tries in vain to show them to us; we refuse to see them t… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Our reason tries in vain to show them to us; we refuse to see them till we find them in the way of our interests.” Who acts: we, Our. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 108

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Our reason tries in vain to show them to us; we refuse to see them till we find them in the way of our interests.”

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**Who acts:** we, Our · **What happens:** show, refuse, not see, find, try, interest · **To what, where:** tries, us, way

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, Our), 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:pg503:3:108
# text = Our reason tries in vain to show them to us; we refuse to see them till we find them in the way of our interests.”
1	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	tries	try	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	refuse	refuse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	find	find	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	interests	interest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** | to-infinitive |  | tries *= try* | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Topic to we=Recipient |
| 2 | **refuse** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **see** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | tries *= try* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 4 | **find** | present | we | tries *= try* |  | the way of our interests |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic |
| 5 | **try** |  | Our |  |  |  |  |  | nom try «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **interest** |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom interest «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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