---
title: He could have borne seven knights in armour, and never sweated a dro… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: He could have borne seven knights in armour, and never sweated a drop; as for swimming rivers, there never was beast like him. Who acts: Duke. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of Richard of Normandy, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, Of Richard of Normandy, sentence 48

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He could have borne seven knights in armour, and never sweated a drop; as for swimming rivers, there never was beast like him.

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**Who acts:** Duke · **What happens:** bear, not sweate, swim, not be · **To what, where:** seven knights, armour, drop, beast

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of Richard of Normandy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Duke), 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:pg75339:24:48
# text = He could have borne seven knights in armour, and never sweated a drop; as for swimming rivers, there never was beast like him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	borne	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	armour	armour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	sweated	sweate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	19	case	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	fixed	_	_
18	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	amod	_	_
19	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	24	expl	_	_
22	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	beast	Beast	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | could · perfect | Duke | seven knights |  | armour |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knight=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **sweate** | past | Duke *not said here* | a drop |  |  |  | as swimming rivers | tree rules |
| 3 | **swim** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **is a** | past |  | beast |  | there |  | like Duke | tree rules |

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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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