---
title: King Canute knelt before the altar in prayer; his brothers Eric and… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: King Canute knelt before the altar in prayer; his brothers Eric and Benedict stood by him as a guard with drawn swords; but the King's servant, the treacherous Blake, betrayed his master. Who acts: King, brothers, servant. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bell-deep, sentence 42

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King Canute knelt before the altar in prayer; his brothers Eric and Benedict stood by him as a guard with drawn swords; but the King's servant, the treacherous Blake, betrayed his master.

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**Who acts:** King, brothers, servant · **What happens:** kneel, stand, draw, betray · **To what, where:** prayer, master

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bell-deep. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, brothers, servant), 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:pg27200:10:42
# text = King Canute knelt before the altar in prayer; his brothers Eric and Benedict stood by him as a guard with drawn swords; but the King's servant, the treacherous Blake, betrayed his master.
1	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Canute	Canute	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	knelt	kneel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	prayer	prayer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
12	Eric	Eric	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	Benedict	Benedict	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
15	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	guard	guard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	drawn	draw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	swords	sword	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	's	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	treacherous	treacherous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	Blake	Blake	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
35	betrayed	betray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kneel** | past | King |  |  | prayer | before the altar |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before altar=Location |
| 2 | **stand** | past | King's brothers |  |  |  |  | by King; as a guard; with drawn swords | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by he=Location |
| 3 | **draw** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **betray** | past | the King's servant | King's master |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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