---
title: There was war almost all the time, and no one else could lead his ar… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: There was war almost all the time, and no one else could lead his army into battle so well as he. Who acts: war, one. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, King Alfred and the Cakes., 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/pg18442/3/4/)

<!-- 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/) / [King Alfred and the Cakes.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/3/) / 4

# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, King Alfred and the Cakes., sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was war almost all the time, and no one else could lead his army into battle so well as he.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** war, one · **What happens:** be, lead · **To what, where:** army, battle

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, King Alfred and the Cakes.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (war, one), 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:pg18442:3:4
# text = There was war almost all the time, and no one else could lead his army into battle so well as he.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	7	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	else	else	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	lead	lead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | war |  |  | there | time | well *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lead** | could | no one | war's army |  | battle |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent army=Theme into battle=Destination |

<!-- .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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/3/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/3/5/)
- ↑ back to [King Alfred and the Cakes.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/3/)