---
title: Hans tried to deny the truth of these words, but he could not do it,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Hans tried to deny the truth of these words, but he could not do it, and sat silent, hardly listening to what his friend was saying. Who acts: Hans, part, friend. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 70

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Hans tried to deny the truth of these words, but he could not do it, and sat silent, hardly listening to what his friend was saying.

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**Who acts:** Hans, part, friend · **What happens:** try, deny, not do, sit, listen, say · **To what, where:** truth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hans, part, friend), 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:pg641:25:70
# text = Hans tried to deny the truth of these words, but he could not do it, and sat silent, hardly listening to what his friend was saying.
1	Hans	han	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	deny	deny	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	obl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | Hans |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **deny** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Hans *not said here* | the truth of this words |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent truth=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **do** | could | part | truth |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **sit** | past | Hans *not said here* |  |  |  |  | silent *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **listen** | gerund | Hans *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to what=Theme |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | part's friend |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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