---
title: I vow to God that we would slay not a few score of Saracens before t… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: I vow to God that we would slay not a few score of Saracens before they should put us again into this dungeon." Who acts: I, that, Saracens. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Oliver and His Comrades Fared, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Oliver and His Comrades Fared, sentence 43

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I vow to God that we would slay not a few score of Saracens before they should put us again into this dungeon."

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**Who acts:** I, that, Saracens · **What happens:** vow, not slay, put, score · **To what, where:** God, few score, us, dungeon, Saracens

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Oliver and His Comrades Fared. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, that, Saracens), 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:pg75339:19:43
# text = I vow to God that we would slay not a few score of Saracens before they should put us again into this dungeon."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	vow	vow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	score	score	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Saracens	saracen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
15	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
19	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	again	again	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	dungeon	dungeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **vow** | present | I |  | God |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **slay** | would | that | a few score of Saracens |  |  |  | we *nsubj* | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent score=Patient |
| 3 | **put** | should | Saracens *= saracen* |  | us | this dungeon | again |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent we=Goal |
| 4 | **score** |  |  | Saracens |  |  |  |  | nom score «cognition transitive»: of=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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