Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas, sentence 19
If it be so, it is better that they should lose their heads than that we should lose this fair land of Spain."
Who acts: rage, heads, we · What happens: be, lose · To what, where: heads, fair land
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 (rage, heads, 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 4 so | mark |
| 2 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 so | nsubj |
| 3 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 4 so | cop |
| 4 | so | so | ADV | _ | 8 better | advcl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 so | punct |
| 6 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 better | expl |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 better | cop |
| 8 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 lose | mark |
| 10 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 lose | nsubj |
| 11 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 lose | aux |
| 12 | lose | lose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 better | csubj |
| 13 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 heads | nmod:poss |
| 14 | heads | head | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 lose | obj |
| 15 | than | than | SCONJ | _ | 19 lose | mark |
| 16 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 19 lose | mark |
| 17 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 19 lose | nsubj |
| 18 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 lose | aux |
| 19 | lose | lose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 lose | advcl |
| 20 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 22 land | det |
| 21 | fair | fair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 land | amod |
| 22 | land | land | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 lose | obj |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 24 Spain | case |
| 24 | Spain | Spain | PROPN | Number=Sing | 22 land | nmod |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 better | punct |
| 26 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 better | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a condition, not said to happen | infinitive | rage | so property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | is | present | good property | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | lose | should | heads = head | heads's heads | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Eventuality | ||||
| 4 | lose | should | we | this fair land of Spain | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent land=Eventuality |
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/pg75339/27/19/