---
title: The old man answered, "There are two roads to Babylon, one of forty… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man answered, "There are two roads to Babylon, one of forty days' journey and one of fifteen only. Who acts: old man, two roads, forty days. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Huon Met With King Oberon, with its dependency tree an
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Huon Met With King Oberon, sentence 18

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The old man answered, "There are two roads to Babylon, one of forty days' journey and one of fifteen only.

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**Who acts:** old man, two roads, forty days · **What happens:** answer, be, journey · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Huon Met With King Oberon. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, two roads, forty days), 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:pg75339:39:18
# text = The old man answered, "There are two roads to Babylon, one of forty days' journey and one of fifteen only.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Babylon	Babylon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	appos	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	'	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	conj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nmod	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **does** *in a quote* | present | two roads to Babylon |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **journey** *in a quote* |  | forty days |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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