---
title: It were better for him, dotard that he is, to be at Paris than here." — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: It were better for him, dotard that he is, to be at Paris than here." Who acts: King. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How the Bridge Mantryble Was Won, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How the Bridge Mantryble Was Won, sentence 45

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It were better for him, dotard that he is, to be at Paris than here."

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** Paris

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How the Bridge Mantryble Was Won. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King), 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:pg75339:25:45
# text = It were better for him, dotard that he is, to be at Paris than here."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	expl	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	dotard	dotard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Paris	Paris	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | for King; dotard *obl*; good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | present | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | Paris |  |  | 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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