---
title: "If we cannot break their ranks," said the Swiss, "we have no chance… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "If we cannot break their ranks," said the Swiss, "we have no chance for fight, and our country will be lost!" Who acts: we. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Arnold Winkelried., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/24/18/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fifty Famous Stories Retold](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/) / [Arnold Winkelried.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/24/) / 18

# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Arnold Winkelried., sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"If we cannot break their ranks," said the Swiss, "we have no chance for fight, and our country will be lost!"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** not break, say, have, lose · **To what, where:** ranks, Swiss, chance, country · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Arnold Winkelried.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), 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:pg18442:24:18
# text = "If we cannot break their ranks," said the Swiss, "we have no chance for fight, and our country will be lost!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	ranks	rank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Swiss	Swiss	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	fight	fight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **break** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | can | we | spears's ranks |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rank=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: express* | past |  | the Swiss |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | we | no chance |  |  |  | for fight | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Patient |
| 4 | **lose** *in a quote* | future · passive |  | our country |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/24/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/24/19/)
- ↑ back to [Arnold Winkelried.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/24/)