---
title: "Just half as high as my top-boots," replied the boy; "but then I mu… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: "Just half as high as my top-boots," replied the boy; "but then I must stand in the deepest holes." Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother, sentence 11

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"Just half as high as my top-boots," replied the boy; "but then I must stand in the deepest holes."

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** reply, stand · **To what, where:** deepest holes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Elder-tree Mother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg27200:72:11
# text = "Just half as high as my top-boots," replied the boy; "but then I must stand in the deepest holes."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	5	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
8	top	top	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	deepest	deep	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	26	amod	_	_
26	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **stand** *in a quote* | must | the boy *= boy* |  |  | the deepest holes | then |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in hole=Location |

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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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