---
title: And yet all this while the tree grew a notch or joint taller every y… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And yet all this while the tree grew a notch or joint taller every year; for by the number of joints in the stem of a fir-tree we can discover its age. Who acts: tree, we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Fir Tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/4/)

<!-- 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/) / 4

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Fir Tree, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And yet all this while the tree grew a notch or joint taller every year; for by the number of joints in the stem of a fir-tree we can discover its age.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tree, we · **What happens:** grow, discover, stem · **To what, where:** age, fir tree

<!-- .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 (tree, we), 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:pg27200:33:4
# text = And yet all this while the tree grew a notch or joint taller every year; for by the number of joints in the stem of a fir-tree we can discover its age.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
3	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
4	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obl	_	_
5	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	notch	notch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	joint	joint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	parataxis	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	joints	joint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	stem	stem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
31	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	acl:relcl	_	_
34	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the tree |  |  |  | yet; year | for the number of joints in the stem of a fir tree | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **discover** | can | we | tree's age |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent age=Topic |
| 3 | **stem** |  |  | a fir tree |  |  |  |  | nom stem «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/5/)
- ↑ back to [The Fir Tree](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/33/)