---
title: The Duke and his knights did valiantly, but what could their valour… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: The Duke and his knights did valiantly, but what could their valour avail against so great a multitude? Who acts: Duke. 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 ever
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How the Duke Benes Came By His End, sentence 95

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The Duke and his knights did valiantly, but what could their valour avail against so great a multitude?

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**Who acts:** Duke · **What happens:** do, avail

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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 (Duke), 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:pg75339:4:95
# text = The Duke and his knights did valiantly, but what could their valour avail against so great a multitude?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Duke	Duke	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
6	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	valiantly	valiantly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	valour	valour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	avail	avail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
15	against	against	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	multitude	multitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the Duke and Duke's knights |  |  |  |  | valiantly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **avail** | could |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj*; knights *= knight* *nmod:poss* | tree rules |

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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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