---
title: A stalwart man was he, and his countenance was fair and smiling. — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: A stalwart man was he, and his countenance was fair and smiling. Who acts: stalwart man, Roland. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How the Heathen and the French Prepared For Battle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How the Heathen and the French Prepared For Battle, sentence 51

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A stalwart man was he, and his countenance was fair and smiling.

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**Who acts:** stalwart man, Roland · **What happens:** be, smile · **To what, where:** Roland

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How the Heathen and the French Prepared For Battle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stalwart man, Roland), 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:pg75339:30:51
# text = A stalwart man was he, and his countenance was fair and smiling.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	stalwart	stalwart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	smiling	smile	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | a stalwart man | Roland |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Roland |  |  |  |  | Roland's countenance *nsubj*; fair *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **smile** | gerund | Roland *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «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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