---
title: Before each idol (and they are all made of tin) stood a little altar… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Before each idol (and they are all made of tin) stood a little altar of holy water, with flowers and burning wax lights on it. Who acts: idol. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-sixth Evening, 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/pg27200/117/8/)

<!-- 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/) / [Twenty-sixth Evening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/117/) / 8

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Twenty-sixth Evening, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before each idol (and they are all made of tin) stood a little altar of holy water, with flowers and burning wax lights on it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** idol · **What happens:** make, stand, burn · **To what, where:** statues, little altar, wax lights, idol

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Twenty-sixth Evening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (idol), 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:pg27200:117:8
# text = Before each idol (and they are all made of tin) stood a little altar of holy water, with flowers and burning wax lights on it.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	idol	idol	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
4	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
8	all	all	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	9	punct	_	_
13	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	holy	holy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	_
25	wax	wax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present · passive |  | statues *= statue* |  |  |  | of tin; all *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **stand** | past | each idol | a little altar of holy water |  |  |  | with flowers | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer altar=Stimulus |
| 3 | **burn** | gerund | each idol *not said here* | wax lights |  | idol |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent light=Theme |

<!-- .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 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/117/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/117/9/)
- ↑ back to [Twenty-sixth Evening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/117/)