---
title: On the top of the hill in the shade of two fair trees were four marb… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: On the top of the hill in the shade of two fair trees were four marble steps. 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 3

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On the top of the hill in the shade of two fair trees were four marble steps.

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**What happens:** be, shade · **To what, where:** four marble steps, top, two fair trees

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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: 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:pg75339:35:3
# text = On the top of the hill in the shade of two fair trees were four marble steps.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	shade	shade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
16	marble	marble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | four marble steps |  | the top of the hill in the shade of two fair trees |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **shade** |  |  | two fair trees |  |  |  |  | nom shade «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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