---
title: It is not well for a man, how great soever he be, to fight against h… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: It is not well for a man, how great soever he be, to fight against his sovereign lord. Who acts: messenger, Duke. 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 the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Slaying of Lothair, sentence 25

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It is not well for a man, how great soever he be, to fight against his sovereign lord.

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**Who acts:** messenger, Duke · **What happens:** not be, be

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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 (messenger, Duke), 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:pg75339:3:25
# text = It is not well for a man, how great soever he be, to fight against his sovereign lord.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
11	soever	soever	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
17	against	against	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	sovereign	sovereign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | messenger |  |  |  |  | for a man; well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | messenger *not said here* |  |  |  |  | soever *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive | Duke |  |  |  |  | against Duke's sovereign lord; fight *property* | tree rules |

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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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