---
title: They asked for the finest silk and the most precious gold-cloth; all… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They asked for the finest silk and the most precious gold-cloth; all they got they did away with, and worked at the empty looms till late at night. Who acts: swindlers, all. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Suit, with its dependency tree and
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/12/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Emperor's New Suit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/) / 12

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor's New Suit, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They asked for the finest silk and the most precious gold-cloth; all they got they did away with, and worked at the empty looms till late at night.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** swindlers, all · **What happens:** ask, get, do away, work

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Suit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swindlers, all), 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:pg27200:32:12
# text = They asked for the finest silk and the most precious gold-cloth; all they got they did away with, and worked at the empty looms till late at night.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
6	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
9	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	10	advmod	_	_
10	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
11	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	nsubj	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	looms	loom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
29	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	advcl	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | swindlers *= swindler* |  |  |  |  | for the finest silk and the precious gold cloth | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **get** | past | all |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do away** | past | swindlers *= swindler* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **work** | past | all *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the empty looms | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at loom=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 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/13/)
- ↑ back to [The Emperor's New Suit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/32/)