---
title: Then he began to speak, nor could any one have spoken better. " — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he began to speak, nor could any one have spoken better. " Who acts: King. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Treason of Ganelon, 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/pg75339/28/41/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Treason of Ganelon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/28/) / 41

# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Treason of Ganelon, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he began to speak, nor could any one have spoken better. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** begin, speak · **To what, where:** one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Treason of Ganelon. 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.

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

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75339:28:41
# text = Then he began to speak, nor could any one have spoken better. "
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
9	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
13	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | King |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | could · perfect · passive |  | any one |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/28/40/)
- next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/28/42/)
- ↑ back to [The Treason of Ganelon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/28/)