---
title: People that saw him said, “What a fine tree!” and towards Christmas… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: People that saw him said, “What a fine tree!” and towards Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down. Who acts: People, Tree. 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 62

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People that saw him said, “What a fine tree!” and towards Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down.

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**Who acts:** People, Tree · **What happens:** see, say, be, cut down · **To what, where:** Tree, one, that · **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 (People, Tree), 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:pg1597:10:62
# text = People that saw him said, “What a fine tree!” and towards Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down.
1	People	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	11	det:predet	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	nmod	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	_
26	down	down	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | People | Tree |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | People |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | Tree | one |  |  |  | towards Christmas; of the first | tree rules |
| 4 | **cut down** | past · passive |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

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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:** «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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