---
title: But cursed would he be that does not sell his life dearly! — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: But cursed would he be that does not sell his life dearly! Who acts: Roland. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Oliver Was Slain, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Oliver Was Slain, sentence 28

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But cursed would he be that does not sell his life dearly!

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**Who acts:** Roland · **What happens:** curse, be, not sell · **To what, where:** that, life

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Oliver Was Slain. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg75339:33:28
# text = But cursed would he be that does not sell his life dearly!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	cursed	curse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	conj	_	_
7	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	dearly	dearly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **curse** | participle | Roland *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | infinitive | Roland *not said here* | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **sell** | would · do-support | Roland | Roland's life |  |  |  | dearly *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |

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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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