---
title: King Canute was a Dane; but the Danes were not so fierce and cruel t… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: King Canute was a Dane; but the Danes were not so fierce and cruel then as they had been when they were at war with King Alfred. Who acts: King, Danes, they. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, King Canute on the Seashore., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/5/2/)

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, King Canute on the Seashore., sentence 2

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King Canute was a Dane; but the Danes were not so fierce and cruel then as they had been when they were at war with King Alfred.

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**Who acts:** King, Danes, they · **What happens:** be, not be · **To what, where:** Dane

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, King Canute on the Seashore.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, Danes, they), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg18442:5:2
# text = King Canute was a Dane; but the Danes were not so fierce and cruel then as they had been when they were at war with King Alfred.
1	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	Canute	Canute	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Dane	Dane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Danes	Dane	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	cop	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod:desc	_	_
28	Alfred	Alfred	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | King | a Dane |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | the Danes |  |  |  |  | fierce *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | the Danes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past · perfect | they |  |  |  | then | as war; with Alfred  King | tree rules |

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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.

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**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.

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