---
title: But for the feast the company must be carefully selected; we can onl… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But for the feast the company must be carefully selected; we can only admit persons of high rank; I have had a dispute myself with the elf king, as he thought we could not admit ghosts. Who acts: we, I, king. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill, w
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elfin Hill, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But for the feast the company must be carefully selected; we can only admit persons of high rank; I have had a dispute myself with the elf king, as he thought we could not admit ghosts.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, I, king · **What happens:** select, admit, have, think, not admit · **To what, where:** company, persons, dispute, ghosts · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, I, 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:pg27200:31:17
# text = But for the feast the company must be carefully selected; we can only admit persons of high rank; I have had a dispute myself with the elf king, as he thought we could not admit ghosts.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	for	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	feast	feast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
9	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	selected	select	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	admit	admit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
16	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	rank	rank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	parataxis	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	dispute	dispute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obl	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	elf	elf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
35	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
36	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	admit	admit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	ccomp	_	_
39	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **select** | must · passive |  | the company |  |  |  | for the feast; carefully *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **admit** *speech: other* | can | we | persons of high rank |  |  |  |  | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | present · perfect | I | a dispute |  |  |  | with the elf king; myself *obl* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dispute=Patient |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **admit** *speech: other* | could | we | ghosts |  |  |  |  | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ghost=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.

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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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