---
title: Then was Oliver in a great strait, for he had no sword, and his shie… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then was Oliver in a great strait, for he had no sword, and his shield was cleft in twain, and his armour grievously broken. Who acts: Oliver, shield. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Oliver Fought With Fierabras, with its dependency tr
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Oliver Fought With Fierabras, sentence 63

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Then was Oliver in a great strait, for he had no sword, and his shield was cleft in twain, and his armour grievously broken.

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**Who acts:** Oliver, shield · **What happens:** be, have, break · **To what, where:** Oliver, sword, twain, armour, great strait

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Oliver Fought With Fierabras. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Oliver, shield), 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:pg75339:17:63
# text = Then was Oliver in a great strait, for he had no sword, and his shield was cleft in twain, and his armour grievously broken.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	Oliver	Oliver	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	strait	strait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	shield	shield	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	cleft	cleft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	twain	twain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	armour	armour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
26	grievously	grievously	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | Oliver |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | Oliver | no sword |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | Oliver's shield |  |  | twain |  | cleft *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **break** | participle |  | Oliver's armour *not said here* |  |  |  | grievously *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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:** «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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