---
title: Better death than flight," said he, as he mounted his good steed Vei… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Better death than flight," said he, as he mounted his good steed Veillantif, and rode towards the enemy. Who acts: Better death, death. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Archbishop Turpin Died, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Archbishop Turpin Died, sentence 40

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Better death than flight," said he, as he mounted his good steed Veillantif, and rode towards the enemy.

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**Who acts:** Better death, death · **What happens:** say, mount, ride · **To what, where:** good steed, enemy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Archbishop Turpin Died. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Better death, death), 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:pg75339:34:40
# text = Better death than flight," said he, as he mounted his good steed Veillantif, and rode towards the enemy.
1	Better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	amod	_	_
2	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	than	than	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	mounted	mount	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	steed	steed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	Veillantif	Veillantif	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
20	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Better death than flight |  |  |  |  | death *nsubj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mount** *in a quote* | past | death | death's good steed |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent steed=Patient |
| 3 | **ride** *in a quote* | past | death *not said here* |  |  | the enemy |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent towards enemy=Trajectory |

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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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