---
title: Then he saw an open coffin standing in the centre of the church, whi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he saw an open coffin standing in the centre of the church, which contained a dead man, waiting for burial. Who acts: weather, open coffin, church. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he saw an open coffin standing in the centre of the church, which contained a dead man, waiting for burial.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** weather, open coffin, church · **What happens:** see, stand, contain, wait · **To what, where:** open coffin, centre, dead man

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Travelling Companion, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (weather, open coffin, church), 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:pg27200:196:55
# text = Then he saw an open coffin standing in the centre of the church, which contained a dead man, waiting for burial.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	centre	centre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	contained	contain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	conj	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	burial	burial	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | weather | a open coffin |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer coffin=Stimulus |
| 2 | **stand** | gerund | a open coffin *not said here* |  |  | the centre of the church |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in centre=Location |
| 3 | **contain** | past | the church | a dead man |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot man=Theme |
| 4 | **wait** | gerund | a open coffin *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for burial | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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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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