---
title: "I think," said, the porter's wife, "the grander people are, the few… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "I think," said, the porter's wife, "the grander people are, the fewer airs do they give themselves. Who acts: I, grander people, fewer airs, airs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2, sentence 11

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"I think," said, the porter's wife, "the grander people are, the fewer airs do they give themselves.

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**Who acts:** I, grander people, fewer airs, airs · **What happens:** think, say, be, do, give · **To what, where:** airs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, grander people, fewer airs, airs), 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:pg27200:147:11
# text = "I think," said, the porter's wife, "the grander people are, the fewer airs do they give themselves.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	grander	grand	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	amod	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	fewer	few	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	amod	_	_
21	airs	air	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl:relcl	_	_
25	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **does** *in a quote* | present | the grander people |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | present | the fewer airs |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **give** *in a quote* | infinitive | airs *= air* | airs *= air* |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «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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