---
title: His horse, Barbemouche by name, was swifter than a sparrow-hawk or a… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: His horse, Barbemouche by name, was swifter than a sparrow-hawk or a swallow. Who acts: horse. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Battle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Battle, sentence 105

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His horse, Barbemouche by name, was swifter than a sparrow-hawk or a swallow.

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**Who acts:** horse · **What happens:** be

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Battle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horse), 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:pg75339:31:105
# text = His horse, Barbemouche by name, was swifter than a sparrow-hawk or a swallow.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	Barbemouche	Barbemouche	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	swifter	swift	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Ganelon's horse |  |  |  |  | than a sparrow hawk or a swallow; swift *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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