Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Coming of Roland, sentence 23
But while they sat at the feast, there came a messenger saying that the city of Cologne was beset of Saracens.
Who acts: Reynaud, messenger, city · What happens: sit, come, say, be · To what, where: feast, messenger, beset · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Coming of Roland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Reynaud, messenger, city), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 10 came | cc |
| 2 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 sat | mark |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 sat | nsubj |
| 4 | sat | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 came | advcl |
| 5 | at | at | ADP | _ | 7 feast | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 feast | det |
| 7 | feast | feast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sat | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 sat | punct |
| 9 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 10 came | expl |
| 10 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 messenger | det |
| 12 | messenger | messenger | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 came | obj |
| 13 | saying | say | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 12 messenger | acl |
| 14 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 20 beset | mark |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 city | det |
| 16 | city | city | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 beset | nsubj |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 Cologne | case |
| 18 | Cologne | Cologne | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 city | nmod |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 beset | cop |
| 20 | beset | beset | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 saying | ccomp |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 Saracens | case |
| 22 | Saracens | saracen | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 beset | nmod |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 came | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sit | past | Reynaud | the feast | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at feast=Location | ||||
| 2 | come | past | a messenger | there | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location messenger=Theme | ||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | gerund | a messenger not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is a | past | the city of Cologne | beset | of Saracens | tree rules |
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.
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