---
title: “To grow and grow, to get older and be tall,” thought the Tree--“tha… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “To grow and grow, to get older and be tall,” thought the Tree--“that, after all, is the most delightful thing in the world!” Who acts: Tree, that. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“To grow and grow, to get older and be tall,” thought the Tree--“that, after all, is the most delightful thing in the world!”

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**Who acts:** Tree, that · **What happens:** grow, get, be, think · **To what, where:** delightful thing, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tree, that), 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:pg1597:10:17
# text = “To grow and grow, to get older and be tall,” thought the Tree--“that, after all, is the most delightful thing in the world!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	To	to	PART	TO	_	3	mark	_	_
3	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
9	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	xcomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
12	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	after	after	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	28	advmod	_	_
28	delightful	delightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **grow** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **get** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | tall *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the Tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | the delightful thing |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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