---
title: By the open sea was a giant's grave; and on the grave-mound sat at m… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: By the open sea was a giant's grave; and on the grave-mound sat at midnight the spirit of the buried hero, who had been a king. Who acts: grave, buried hero. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song, sentence 6

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By the open sea was a giant's grave; and on the grave-mound sat at midnight the spirit of the buried hero, who had been a king.

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**Who acts:** grave, buried hero · **What happens:** be, sit, bury · **To what, where:** grave, spirit, grave mound, king

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Bird of Popular Song. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grave, buried hero), 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:pg27200:11:6
# text = By the open sea was a giant's grave; and on the grave-mound sat at midnight the spirit of the buried hero, who had been a king.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	mound	mound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
17	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
25	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	cop	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a giant's grave |  |  |  | by the open sea | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | past | a giant's grave *not said here* | the spirit of the buried hero |  | the grave mound | midnight |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent spirit=Theme on mound=Location |
| 3 | **bury** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past · perfect | the buried hero | a king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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