---
title: Rather," said he, "would I fight with the King in the open field; ve… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Rather," said he, "would I fight with the King in the open field; verily, if by chance he should come into my hands I would not have pity on him as I did in past time." " Who acts: Rather, King, I. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Peace
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/12/20/)

<!-- 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/) / [Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/) / [How Peace Was Made](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/12/) / 20

# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Peace Was Made, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Rather," said he, "would I fight with the King in the open field; verily, if by chance he should come into my hands I would not have pity on him as I did in past time." "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Rather, King, I · **What happens:** say, fight, come, not have, do · **To what, where:** open field, pity, hands · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Peace Was Made. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Rather, King, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75339:12:20
# text = Rather," said he, "would I fight with the King in the open field; verily, if by chance he should come into my hands I would not have pity on him as I did in past time." "
1	Rather	Rather	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	verily	verily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
34	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nmod	_	_
37	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
40	in	in	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	past	past	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
45	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Rather |  |  |  |  | verily *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **fight** | would | Rather |  |  | the open field |  | with the King; I *nsubj* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with king=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **come** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | King |  |  |  |  | by chance | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by chance=Location |
| 4 | **not** **have** | would | I | pity |  | my hands |  | on King | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pity=Patient |
| 5 | **do** | past | I |  |  |  | time |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/12/19/)
- next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/12/21/)
- ↑ back to [How Peace Was Made](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/12/)