---
title: When they told him it was the army of King Charles, he said, "I woul… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: When they told him it was the army of King Charles, he said, "I would fain speak with the King." Who acts: things, army, Ogier. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How the Duke Benes Came By His End, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/4/28/)

<!-- 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/) / [How the Duke Benes Came By His End](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/4/) / 28

# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How the Duke Benes Came By His End, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they told him it was the army of King Charles, he said, "I would fain speak with the King."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** things, army, Ogier · **What happens:** tell, be, say, fain, speak · **To what, where:** Ogier, army · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How the Duke Benes Came By His End. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (things, army, Ogier), 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:pg75339:4:28
# text = When they told him it was the army of King Charles, he said, "I would fain speak with the King."
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:desc	_	_
11	Charles	Charles	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	fain	fain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
20	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | things *= thing* |  | Ogier |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | army | the army |  |  |  | of Charles  King | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Ogier |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **fain** *in a quote* | would | Ogier |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | infinitive | Ogier *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the King | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with king=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/4/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/4/29/)
- ↑ back to [How the Duke Benes Came By His End](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/4/)