---
title: Surely 'twere a crime to ask too much. — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Surely 'twere a crime to ask too much. 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.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Ganelon Went on an Errand to King Marsilas, sentence 74

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Surely 'twere a crime to ask too much.

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**What happens:** ask · **To what, where:** crime

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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: 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:pg75339:27:74
# text = Surely 'twere a crime to ask too much.
1	Surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	twere	twere	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	crime	crime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	much	much	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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