---
title: But Roland answered him, "Not so, fair uncle; why should I do your b… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: But Roland answered him, "Not so, fair uncle; why should I do your bidding in this matter? Who acts: Roland, your. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Fierabras Defied King Charles, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Fierabras Defied King Charles, sentence 24

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But Roland answered him, "Not so, fair uncle; why should I do your bidding in this matter?

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**Who acts:** Roland, your · **What happens:** answer, do, bid · **To what, where:** fair uncle, King, bidding, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Fierabras Defied King Charles. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Roland, your), 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:pg75339:16:24
# text = But Roland answered him, "Not so, fair uncle; why should I do your bidding in this matter?
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Roland	Roland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	bidding	bidding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: ask* | past | Roland | fair uncle | King |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | should | Roland | your bidding |  | this matter |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bidding=Eventuality |
| 3 | **bid** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom bidding «communication transitive»: poss=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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