---
title: But whether he speaks the truth, that I know not. — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: But whether he speaks the truth, that I know not. Who acts: King, I. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/27/52/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/) / [How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/27/) / 52

# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But whether he speaks the truth, that I know not.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, I · **What happens:** speak, not know · **To what, where:** truth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75339:27:52
# text = But whether he speaks the truth, that I know not.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	speaks	speak	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | King | the truth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/27/51/)
- next →: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/27/53/)
- ↑ back to [How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/27/)