---
title: He was of a fair presence, and had been a noble knight if only he ha… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: He was of a fair presence, and had been a noble knight if only he had been true of heart. Who acts: Roland. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the Punishment of Ganelon, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, Of the Punishment of Ganelon, sentence 11

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He was of a fair presence, and had been a noble knight if only he had been true of heart.

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**Who acts:** Roland · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** noble knight

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, Of the Punishment of Ganelon. 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:pg75339:37:11
# text = He was of a fair presence, and had been a noble knight if only he had been true of heart.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	cop	_	_
19	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	advcl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Roland |  |  |  |  | of a fair presence | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past · perfect |  | a noble knight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | Roland |  |  |  |  | of heart; true *property* | 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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