---
title: The old elf king had his gold crown polished up with powdered slate-… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The old elf king had his gold crown polished up with powdered slate-pencil; it was like that used by the first form, and very difficult for an elf king to obtain. Who acts: old elf king, first form, king. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Elfin Hill, with 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Elfin Hill, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old elf king had his gold crown polished up with powdered slate-pencil; it was like that used by the first form, and very difficult for an elf king to obtain.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old elf king, first form, king · **What happens:** have, polish up, powder, use, obtain, crown · **To what, where:** gold crown, crown

<!-- .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 (old elf king, first form, 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:pg27200:31:26
# text = The old elf king had his gold crown polished up with powdered slate-pencil; it was like that used by the first form, and very difficult for an elf king to obtain.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	elf	elf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	gold	gold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	crown	crown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	polished	polish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	powdered	powder	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	amod	_	_
13	slate	slate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	pencil	pencil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	25	amod	_	_
25	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	parataxis	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	elf	elf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the old elf king | king's gold crown |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crown=Patient |
| 2 | **polish up** | participle |  | king's gold crown *not said here* |  |  |  | with powdered slate pencil | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with pencil=Theme |
| 3 | **powder** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **use** | past · passive | the first form | crown |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 5 | **obtain** | to-infinitive | the first form *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 6 | **crown** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom crown «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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