---
title: There could not be a more curious instance of this than is to be fou… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: There could not be a more curious instance of this than is to be found in the story of the death of Roland. Who acts: curious instance, Roland. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, Opening, sentence 20

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There could not be a more curious instance of this than is to be found in the story of the death of Roland.

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**Who acts:** curious instance, Roland · **What happens:** not be, find, instance, die · **To what, where:** story, this

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (curious instance, Roland), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75339:1:20
# text = There could not be a more curious instance of this than is to be found in the story of the death of Roland.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
7	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	instance	instance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	nmod	_	_
11	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Roland	Roland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **can** | could | a curious instance of this |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **find** | present · passive | a curious instance of this *not said here* |  |  | the story of the death of Roland |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF» |
| 3 | **instance** |  |  | this |  |  |  |  | nom instance «event transitive»: of=patient |
| 4 | **die** |  | Roland |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent |

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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:** «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Project Gutenberg book 75339 (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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