---
title: ‘Chieftain, it was agreed we should give battle to thee alone, and i… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Chieftain, it was agreed we should give battle to thee alone, and it is harder for us to contend with yonder beast than with thee.’ Who acts: Chieftain, it, us. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 19

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‘Chieftain, it was agreed we should give battle to thee alone, and it is harder for us to contend with yonder beast than with thee.’

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**Who acts:** Chieftain, it, us · **What happens:** agree, give, be, contend · **To what, where:** Chieftain, battle, thee

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Chieftain, it, us), 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:pg3454:32:19
# text = ‘Chieftain, it was agreed we should give battle to thee alone, and it is harder for us to contend with yonder beast than with thee.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Chieftain	chieftain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	agreed	agree	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	TO	_	12	case	_	_
12	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	nmod	_	_
13	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	harder	hard	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	parataxis	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	contend	contend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	csubj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	yonder	yonder	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past · passive | Chieftain *not said here* | Chieftain |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **give** | should | Chieftain | battle | thee |  |  | alone *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent battle=Theme to thou=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** | present | it |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **contend** | to-infinitive | us |  |  |  |  | with beast; than thee | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with beast=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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