---
title: They are not taller than I am: indeed, one is much less; and why are… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They are not taller than I am: indeed, one is much less; and why are the branches not cut off? Who acts: branches. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/30/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Fir Tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/) / 30

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Fir Tree, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They are not taller than I am: indeed, one is much less; and why are the branches not cut off?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** branches · **What happens:** not be, be, not cut off · **To what, where:** branches

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (branches), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:33:30
# text = They are not taller than I am: indeed, one is much less; and why are the branches not cut off?
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
9	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	obl	_	_
12	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	much	much	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | branches *= branch* |  |  |  |  | one *obl*; indeed, tall *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | present | branches *= branch* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | less *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | the branches |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **cut off** | participle · passive |  | the branches |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/29/)
- next →: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/31/)
- ↑ back to [The Fir Tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/)