---
title: It so chanced that a spy heard them talk in this fashion, and, makin… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: It so chanced that a spy heard them talk in this fashion, and, making all haste, came to the Duke and told him. " Who acts: many, spy, knights, making. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Slaying of Lothair, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Slaying of Lothair, sentence 21

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It so chanced that a spy heard them talk in this fashion, and, making all haste, came to the Duke and told him. "

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**Who acts:** many, spy, knights, making · **What happens:** chance, hear, talk, make, come, tell · **To what, where:** knights, fashion, haste, Duke · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Slaying of Lothair. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (many, spy, knights, making), 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:pg75339:3:21
# text = It so chanced that a spy heard them talk in this fashion, and, making all haste, came to the Duke and told him. "
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	so	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	chanced	chance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	spy	spy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	fashion	fashion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	making	make	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	csubj	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Duke	Duke	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chance** | past | many |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | past | a spy | knights *= knight* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **talk** | infinitive | knights *= knight* *not said here* |  |  | this fashion |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **make** | gerund |  | all haste |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset haste=Product |
| 5 | **come** | past | making |  |  |  |  | to the Duke | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to duke=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | making *not said here* |  | Duke |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

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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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