---
title: The shifting sands had covered the graves in the courtyard, quite up… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The shifting sands had covered the graves in the courtyard, quite up to the church walls, but still, the dead must be buried among their relatives and the dear ones who had gone before them. Who acts: shifting sands, dear ones. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, part 5, sentence 94

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The shifting sands had covered the graves in the courtyard, quite up to the church walls, but still, the dead must be buried among their relatives and the dear ones who had gone before them.

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**Who acts:** shifting sands, dear ones · **What happens:** shift, cover, bury, go · **To what, where:** graves, dead, relatives

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Story From the Sand-hills, 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 (shifting sands, dear ones), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg27200:11104`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:162:94
# text = The shifting sands had covered the graves in the courtyard, quite up to the church walls, but still, the dead must be buried among their relatives and the dear ones who had gone before them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	shifting	shift	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	amod	_	_
3	sands	sand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	graves	grave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	up	up	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
20	still	still	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
27	among	among	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	relatives	relative	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	_
34	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	acl:relcl	_	_
37	before	before	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obl	_	_
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shift** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **cover** | past · perfect | the shifting sands | the graves |  |  |  | to the church walls; in the courtyard | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent grave=Destination in courtyard=Theme |
| 3 | **bury** | must · passive |  | the dead |  | walls's relatives and the dear ones | still |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme among relative=Destination |
| 4 | **go** | past · perfect | the dear ones |  |  |  | before relatives *= relative* |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme before they=Location |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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