--- title: Nero could not have played the fiddle while Rome burned in the year… — Kings, queens and emperors · tree and pragmatics description: Nero could not have played the fiddle while Rome burned in the year 64, because the fiddle had not been invented; the Roman historian Tacitus says he was away at Antium, came back and opened shelters, though rumours said he sang about the fall of Troy. Who acts: Nero, Rome, Roman historian, rumours. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/19-kings-queens-and-emperors/8/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/) / [Kings, queens and emperors](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/19-kings-queens-and-emperors/) / 8 # Kings, queens and emperors, sentence 8 Nero could not have played the fiddle while Rome burned in the year 64, because the fiddle had not been invented; the Roman historian Tacitus says he was away at Antium, came back and opened shelters, though rumours said he sang about the fall of Troy. **Who acts:** Nero, Rome, Roman historian, rumours · **What happens:** not play, burn, not invent, say, be, come back · **To what, where:** fiddle, Antium, shelters · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Kings, queens and emperors» of the myths course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nero, Rome, Roman historian, rumours), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:myths:019-kings-queens-and-emperors.lesson:8 # text = Nero could not have played the fiddle while Rome burned in the year 64, because the fiddle had not been invented; the Roman historian Tacitus says he was away at Antium, came back and opened shelters, though rumours said he sang about the fall of Troy. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = myths # lesson = 019-kings-queens-and-emperors.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R7-rel-agree ×2 1 Nero Nero PROPN NNP Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 2 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 5 aux _ _ 3 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 5 advmod _ _ 4 have have AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 5 aux _ _ 5 played play VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 fiddle fiddle NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 obj _ _ 8 while while SCONJ IN _ 10 mark _ _ 9 Rome Rome PROPN NNP Number=Sing 10 nsubj _ _ 10 burned burn VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 advcl _ _ 11 in in ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 12 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 13 year year NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ _ 14 64 64 NUM CD NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card 13 flat _ _ 15 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 16 because because SCONJ IN _ 22 mark _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 18 fiddle fiddle NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj:pass _ _ 19 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 20 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 22 advmod _ _ 21 been be AUX VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 22 aux:pass _ _ 22 invented invent VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 5 advcl _ _ 23 ; ; PUNCT : _ 28 punct _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 25 Roman Roman ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ _ 26 historian historian NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nsubj _ _ 27 Tacitus Tacitus PROPN NNP Number=Sing 26 appos _ _ 28 says say VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=5:conj 29 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 30 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 31 cop _ _ 31 away away ADV RB _ 28 ccomp _ _ 32 at at ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 Antium Antium PROPN NNP Number=Sing 31 obl _ _ 34 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 35 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 31 conj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=31:parataxis 36 back back ADV RB _ 35 advmod _ _ 37 and and CCONJ CC _ 38 cc _ _ 38 opened open VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 conj _ _ 39 shelters shelter NOUN NNS Number=Plur 38 obj _ _ 40 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 41 though though SCONJ IN _ 43 mark _ _ 42 rumours rumour NOUN NNS Number=Plur 43 nsubj _ _ 43 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 38 conj _ _ 44 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 45 nsubj _ _ 45 sang sing VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 43 ccomp _ _ 46 about about ADP IN _ 48 case _ _ 47 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 48 det _ _ 48 fall fall NOUN NN Number=Sing 45 obl _ _ 49 of of ADP IN _ 50 case _ _ 50 Troy Troy PROPN NNP Number=Sing 48 nmod _ _ 51 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **play** | could · perfect | Nero | the fiddle | | | | | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fiddle=Theme | | 2 | **burn** | past | Rome | | | | year | | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location | | 3 | **not** **invent** | past · perfect · passive | | the fiddle | | | | | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the Roman historian | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **is** | past | Rome | | | Antium | | away *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **come back** | past | Rome *not said here* | | | | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **open** | past | Rome *not said here* | shelters | | | | | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location shelter=Theme | | 8 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | rumours | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 9 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | Rome | | | | | about the fall of Troy | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about fall=Location | 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. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:myths:019-kings-queens-and-emperors.lesson:8`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R7-rel-agree ×2. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Kings, queens and emperors, 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/19-kings-queens-and-emperors/7/) - next →: [Kings, queens and emperors, 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/19-kings-queens-and-emperors/9/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/19-kings-queens-and-emperors/)