---
title: It were a foul shame if you should slay me. — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: It were a foul shame if you should slay me. Who acts: purpose, you. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How King Charles Sent Huon on an Errand, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How King Charles Sent Huon on an Errand, sentence 37

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It were a foul shame if you should slay me.

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**Who acts:** purpose, you · **What happens:** be, slay · **To what, where:** foul shame, me

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How King Charles Sent Huon on an Errand. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (purpose, you), 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:pg75339:38:37
# text = It were a foul shame if you should slay me.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	foul	foul	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	shame	shame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | purpose | a foul shame |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **slay** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | you | me |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=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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