---
title: Whence come you, old man?" said he, "Tell me the truth." — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Whence come you, old man?" said he, "Tell me the truth." Who acts: old man, truth. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the Doings of the French Knights, 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 Doings of the French Knights, sentence 16

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Whence come you, old man?" said he, "Tell me the truth."

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**Who acts:** old man, truth · **What happens:** come, say, tell · **To what, where:** you, me · **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, Of the Doings of the French Knights. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, truth), 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:pg75339:22:16
# text = Whence come you, old man?" said he, "Tell me the truth."
1	Whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | present |  | you |  |  |  | whence *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location you=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | old man |  |  |  |  | man *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | the truth |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |

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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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