---
title: First they fought with swords, but neither one could get the better… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: First they fought with swords, but neither one could get the better of the other. Who acts: horses, one. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Mawgis Became a Hermit, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Mawgis Became a Hermit, sentence 26

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First they fought with swords, but neither one could get the better of the other.

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**Who acts:** horses, one · **What happens:** fight, get

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Mawgis Became a Hermit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horses, one), 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:pg75339:10:26
# text = First they fought with swords, but neither one could get the better of the other.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	swords	sword	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
9	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	xcomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | past | horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  | with swords; first *property* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with sword=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **get** | could | neither one |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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