---
title: They are valiant men, and you had better have them for friends than… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: They are valiant men, and you had better have them for friends than for enemies." Who acts: chief, you. 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 of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How the Duke Benes Came By His End, sentence 74

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They are valiant men, and you had better have them for friends than for enemies."

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**Who acts:** chief, you · **What happens:** be, have · **To what, where:** valiant men, chief

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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 (chief, 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:pg75339:4:74
# text = They are valiant men, and you had better have them for friends than for enemies."
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	valiant	valiant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	xcomp	_	_
10	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	csubj	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	enemies	enemy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | chief | valiant men |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | you | valiant men *not said here* |  |  |  | good *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient |
| 3 | **have** | infinitive |  | chief |  |  |  | for friends than enemies | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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