---
title: They had scarce met in the shock of battle when Roland with one migh… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: They had scarce met in the shock of battle when Roland with one mighty blow cleft him to his saddle, aye, and slew the horse on which he rode. Who acts: men, Roland. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Battle, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Battle, sentence 136

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They had scarce met in the shock of battle when Roland with one mighty blow cleft him to his saddle, aye, and slew the horse on which he rode.

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**Who acts:** men, Roland · **What happens:** meet, slay, ride, shock · **To what, where:** Roland, shock, horse, battle

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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 (men, 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:pg75339:31:136
# text = They had scarce met in the shock of battle when Roland with one mighty blow cleft him to his saddle, aye, and slew the horse on which he rode.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	scarce	scarce	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	met	meet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	shock	shock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
11	Roland	Roland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
14	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	cleft	cleft	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	saddle	saddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	aye	aye	INTJ	UH	_	16	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	slew	slay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obl	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past · perfect | men *= man* | Roland |  | the shock of battle |  | with one mighty blow cleft  Roland to Roland's saddle; scarce *property* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with cleft=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **slay** | past | men *= man* *not said here* | the horse |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 3 | **ride** | past | Roland |  |  |  |  | on the horse | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **shock** |  |  | battle |  |  |  |  | nom shock «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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