---
title: Before him was a great rock, and on this in his rage and pain he smo… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Before him was a great rock, and on this in his rage and pain he smote ten mighty blows. Who acts: Roland. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Death of Roland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Death of Roland, sentence 17

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Before him was a great rock, and on this in his rage and pain he smote ten mighty blows.

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**Who acts:** Roland · **What happens:** be, smite, rage · **To what, where:** great rock, ten mighty blows

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Death of Roland. 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:pg75339:35:17
# text = Before him was a great rock, and on this in his rage and pain he smote ten mighty blows.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nsubj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	rage	rage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	smote	smite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
19	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	blows	blow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Roland | a great rock and Roland's rage  this and pain |  |  |  | Roland's rage  this and pain *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **smite** | past | Roland | ten mighty blows |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus blow=Experiencer |
| 3 | **rage** |  | Roland |  |  |  |  |  | nom rage «feeling intransitive»: poss=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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