---
title: Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffi… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffin the sphynx gave us no answer to what he who lay within had written two days before: Who acts: corpse, sphynx. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 5, with its dependency tree and the
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/9/115/)

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 5, sentence 115

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Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffin the sphynx gave us no answer to what he who lay within had written two days before:

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**Who acts:** corpse, sphynx · **What happens:** be, give, lie, write · **To what, where:** sphynx, answer, us, black coffin

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (corpse, sphynx), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg1597:9:115
# text = Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffin the sphynx gave us no answer to what he who lay within had written two days before:
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	corpse	corpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sphynx	sphynx	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	immortality	immortality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
9	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	acl	_	_
10	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sphynx	sphynx	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
18	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	obl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	within	within	ADP	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	xcomp	_	_
29	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
31	before	before	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | every corpse | a sphynx |  |  |  | of immortality | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | past | the sphynx | no answer | us | the black coffin |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent we=Recipient answer=Theme on coffin=Asset |
| 3 | **lie** | past | sphynx |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **write** | past · perfect | sphynx *not said here* |  |  |  |  | before *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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