---
title: After a while he spied a bason of gold, tied with a chain to a marbl… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: After a while he spied a bason of gold, tied with a chain to a marble pillar; on this he struck three great strokes with his sword, for he said to himself, "If I may come to speech with some human creature 'twere better than dealing with these men of brass." Who acts: Huon. A sentence of «Stories of
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Huon, Having Slain a Giant, Came to Babylon, sentence 8

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After a while he spied a bason of gold, tied with a chain to a marble pillar; on this he struck three great strokes with his sword, for he said to himself, "If I may come to speech with some human creature 'twere better than dealing with these men of brass."

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**Who acts:** Huon · **What happens:** spy, tie, strike, say, come, deal · **To what, where:** bason, three great strokes, this, Huon · **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, Having Slain a Giant, Came to Babylon. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Huon), 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:pg75339:41:8
# text = After a while he spied a bason of gold, tied with a chain to a marble pillar; on this he struck three great strokes with his sword, for he said to himself, "If I may come to speech with some human creature 'twere better than dealing with these men of brass."
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	bason	bason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	chain	chain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	marble	marble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	obl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
24	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
25	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	strokes	stroke	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
37	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
39	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	ccomp	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	advcl	_	_
44	with	with	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
45	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	47	det	_	_
46	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	_
48	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	47	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	twere	twere	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
50	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	41	parataxis	_	_
51	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	52	mark	_	_
52	dealing	deal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	50	advcl	_	_
53	with	with	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	55	det	_	_
55	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	obl	_	_
56	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
57	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spy** | past | Huon | a bason of gold |  |  | while |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bason=Stimulus |
| 2 | **tie** | participle |  | a bason of gold *not said here* |  |  |  | with a chain; to a marble pillar | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: agent=Patient with chain=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **strike** | past | Huon | three great strokes |  | this |  | with Huon's sword | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent stroke=Patient with sword=Instrument |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Huon |  | Huon |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | may | Huon |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **deal** *in a quote* | gerund | Huon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with this men of brass | vn cope-83 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with man=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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