---
title: After the branches were lopped off, the trunks looked so slender and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: After the branches were lopped off, the trunks looked so slender and bare, that they could scarcely be recognized. Who acts: trunks. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Fir Tree, sentence 13

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After the branches were lopped off, the trunks looked so slender and bare, that they could scarcely be recognized.

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**Who acts:** trunks · **What happens:** lop off, look, recognize · **To what, where:** trunks

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» 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 (trunks), 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:pg27200:33:13
# text = After the branches were lopped off, the trunks looked so slender and bare, that they could scarcely be recognized.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	lopped	lop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	trunks	trunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	recognized	recognize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lop off** | past · passive |  |  |  |  | after the branches |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP» |
| 2 | **look** | past | the trunks |  |  |  |  | slender *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **recognize** | could · passive |  | trunks *= trunk* |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |

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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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