---
title: And this they did, holding the breaches as best they might, and driv… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: And this they did, holding the breaches as best they might, and driving back the Saracens. Who acts: this. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the End of Balan the Admiral, 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 End of Balan the Admiral, sentence 24

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And this they did, holding the breaches as best they might, and driving back the Saracens.

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**Who acts:** this · **What happens:** do, hold, drive back · **To what, where:** breaches, Saracens

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the End of Balan the Admiral. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this), 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:pg75339:26:24
# text = And this they did, holding the breaches as best they might, and driving back the Saracens.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	breaches	breach	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	obj	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	driving	drive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
16	back	back	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Saracens	saracen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | this |  |  |  |  | Ogier *nsubj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hold** | gerund | this *not said here* | the breaches |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent breach=Theme good=Eventuality |
| 3 | **drive back** | gerund | this *not said here* | the Saracens |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme saracen=Trajectory |

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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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