---
title: But before they had sailed four leagues, there came suddenly upon th… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: But before they had sailed four leagues, there came suddenly upon them a great storm of wind, so that their ships sank. Who acts: men, great storm, ships, wind. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the Plot Against Roland, with its dependenc
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, Of the Plot Against Roland, sentence 7

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But before they had sailed four leagues, there came suddenly upon them a great storm of wind, so that their ships sank.

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**Who acts:** men, great storm, ships, wind · **What happens:** sail, come, sink, storm · **To what, where:** four leagues

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the Plot Against Roland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, great storm, ships, wind), 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:pg75339:29:7
# text = But before they had sailed four leagues, there came suddenly upon them a great storm of wind, so that their ships sank.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sailed	sail	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
6	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	leagues	league	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
24	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sail** | past · perfect | men *= man* | four leagues |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme league=Trajectory |
| 2 | **come** | past | a great storm of wind |  |  | there |  | upon men *= man*; suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon they=Location |
| 3 | **sink** | past | men's ships |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **storm** |  | wind |  |  |  |  |  | nom storm «phenomenon intransitive»: of=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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