---
title: On the helmet fell the blow, cleaving it in twain, and the skull ben… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: On the helmet fell the blow, cleaving it in twain, and the skull beneath, so that the man's brain was scattered on the earth. 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 ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/37/74/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/) / [Of the Punishment of Ganelon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/37/) / 74

# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, Of the Punishment of Ganelon, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On the helmet fell the blow, cleaving it in twain, and the skull beneath, so that the man's brain was scattered on the earth.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** fall, cleave, scatter · **To what, where:** blow, helmet, twain, brain, earth

<!-- .vabout -->
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: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75339:37:74
# text = On the helmet fell the blow, cleaving it in twain, and the skull beneath, so that the man's brain was scattered on the earth.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	helmet	helmet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	cleaving	cleave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	twain	twain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	skull	skull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
16	beneath	beneath	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	25	mark	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	fixed	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	's	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	brain	brain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past |  | the blow |  | the helmet |  | the skull *obl* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient blow=Result |
| 2 | **cleave** | gerund |  | helmet |  | twain |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **scatter** | past · passive |  | the man's brain |  | the earth |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on earth=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/37/73/)
- next →: [sentence 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/37/75/)
- ↑ back to [Of the Punishment of Ganelon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/37/)