---
title: What a gallant knight he had been, were he but a Christian man! — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: What a gallant knight he had been, were he but a Christian man! Who acts: gallant knight. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Charlemagne Sought Vengeance, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Charlemagne Sought Vengeance, sentence 122

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What a gallant knight he had been, were he but a Christian man!

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**Who acts:** gallant knight · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** Christian man

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Charlemagne Sought Vengeance. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gallant knight), 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:pg75339:36:122
# text = What a gallant knight he had been, were he but a Christian man!
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	4	det:predet	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	gallant	gallant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	Christian	Christian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | what gallant knight | a Christian man |  |  |  | hair *nsubj* | tree rules |

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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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