---
title: These young trees, and they were always the finest looking, retained… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: These young trees, and they were always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid on carts, and the horses drew them out of the wood. Who acts: firs, horses. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, sentence 34

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These young trees, and they were always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid on carts, and the horses drew them out of the wood.

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**Who acts:** firs, horses · **What happens:** be, look, retain, lay, draw · **To what, where:** branches, firs, carts, wood

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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 (firs, horses), 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:pg1597:10:34
# text = These young trees, and they were always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid on carts, and the horses drew them out of the wood.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	conj	_	_
11	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	retained	retain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	carts	cart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | firs *= fir* |  |  |  |  | always, fine *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | firs *= fir* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **retain** | past | firs *= fir* *not said here* | firs's branches |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **lay** | past · passive |  | firs *= fir* |  | carts |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on cart=Destination |
| 5 | **draw** | past | the horses | firs *= fir* |  | the wood |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent they=Theme out wood=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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