---
title: The stairs are as broad as the staircase of a castle, and as steep a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The stairs are as broad as the staircase of a castle, and as steep as if they led to a church-tower. Who acts: stairs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Old House, sentence 10

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The stairs are as broad as the staircase of a castle, and as steep as if they led to a church-tower.

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**Who acts:** stairs · **What happens:** be, lead

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Old House. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stairs), 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:pg27200:131:10
# text = The stairs are as broad as the staircase of a castle, and as steep as if they led to a church-tower.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	staircase	staircase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	as	as	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the stairs |  |  |  |  | as the staircase of a castle; broad *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the stairs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lead** | past | stairs *= stair* |  |  |  |  | to a church tower | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition to tower=Patient |

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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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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