---
title: He could govern the powers of nature and held sway over potent spiri… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He could govern the powers of nature and held sway over potent spirits; even Death itself was obliged to give him every morning a list of those who were to die during the day. Who acts: king. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, with its 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He could govern the powers of nature and held sway over potent spirits; even Death itself was obliged to give him every morning a list of those who were to die during the day.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** govern, hold, oblige, give, die, list · **To what, where:** powers, sway, potent spirits, Death, list, king

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg27200:143:19
# text = He could govern the powers of nature and held sway over potent spirits; even Death itself was obliged to give him every morning a list of those who were to die during the day.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	govern	govern	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	powers	power	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	sway	sway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	over	over	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	potent	potent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	even	even	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	Death	Death	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	16	nmod:unmarked	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	list	list	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	26	nmod	_	_
29	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl:relcl	_	_
33	during	during	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **govern** | could | king | the powers of nature |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent power=Theme |
| 2 | **hold** | past | king *not said here* | sway |  | potent spirits |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent sway=Theme over spirit=Location |
| 3 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | Death  sway |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 4 | **give** | to-infinitive |  | a list of those | king |  | morning |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient list=Theme |
| 5 | **die** | past |  |  |  |  | day |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **list** |  |  | those |  |  |  |  | nom list «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.

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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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