---
title: When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which of… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which often were not even as large or of the same age as this Fir Tree, who could never rest, but always wanted to be off. Who acts: Christmas, trees, same age. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with it
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/33/)

<!-- 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/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/) / [The Fir Tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/) / 33

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which often were not even as large or of the same age as this Fir Tree, who could never rest, but always wanted to be off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Christmas, trees, same age · **What happens:** come, cut down, not be, not rest, want off · **To what, where:** trees, young trees

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Christmas, trees, same age), 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:pg1597:10:33
# text = When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which often were not even as large or of the same age as this Fir Tree, who could never rest, but always wanted to be off.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
12	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
14	often	often	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
17	even	even	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	acl:relcl	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
27	Fir	Fir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	Tree	Tree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	rest	rest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	37	advmod	_	_
37	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
39	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	cop	_	_
40	off	off	ADP	RP	_	37	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Christmas | trees |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **cut down** | past · passive |  | young trees |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | trees |  |  |  |  | large, often *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **rest** | could | the same age as Fir Tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **want off** | past | Christmas *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/34/)
- ↑ back to [The Fir Tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/10/)