Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas, sentence 14
Better that they should lose their heads than that we should lose our lordship and our lands, and be brought to beg our bread."
Who acts: hostages, we · What happens: lose, bring, beg · To what, where: heads, lordship, bread
This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hostages, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 2 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 5 lose | mark |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 lose | nsubj |
| 4 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 lose | aux |
| 5 | lose | lose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 1 Better | csubj |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 heads | nmod:poss |
| 7 | heads | head | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 lose | obj |
| 8 | than | than | SCONJ | _ | 12 lose | mark |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 lose | mark |
| 10 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 12 lose | nsubj |
| 11 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 lose | aux |
| 12 | lose | lose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 lose | advcl |
| 13 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 lordship | nmod:poss |
| 14 | lordship | lordship | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 lose | obj |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 lands | cc |
| 16 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 lands | nmod:poss |
| 17 | lands | land | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 lordship | conj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 brought | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 brought | cc |
| 20 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 21 brought | aux:pass |
| 21 | brought | bring | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 1 Better | conj |
| 22 | to | to | PART | _ | 23 beg | mark |
| 23 | beg | beg | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 brought | advcl |
| 24 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 bread | nmod:poss |
| 25 | bread | bread | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 beg | obj |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Better | punct |
| 27 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 1 Better | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | lose | should | hostages = hostage | hostages's heads | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | lose | should | we | our lordship and our lands | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lordship=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | bring | infinitive · passive | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together» | ||||||
| 4 | beg speech: request | to-infinitive | our bread | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent bread=Recipient |
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.
Text: «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Project Gutenberg book 75339 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/27/14/