---
title: He was an old man, and his hair was white, so that it became him to… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: He was an old man, and his hair was white, so that it became him to ride first. Who acts: Naymes, hair. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the Bridge of Mantryble, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, Of the Bridge of Mantryble, sentence 76

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He was an old man, and his hair was white, so that it became him to ride first.

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**Who acts:** Naymes, hair · **What happens:** be, become, ride · **To what, where:** old man

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the Bridge of Mantryble. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Naymes, hair), 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:pg75339:20:76
# text = He was an old man, and his hair was white, so that it became him to ride first.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	16	mark	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	fixed	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	xcomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	ride	ride	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
20	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Naymes | a old man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Naymes's hair |  |  |  |  | white *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **become** | past | hair | a old man *not said here* |  |  |  | Naymes *xcomp* | tree rules |
| 4 | **ride** | to-infinitive | hair *not said here* |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=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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