---
title: Writing he strove to acquire in his mature years, but could not lear… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Writing he strove to acquire in his mature years, but could not learn the art. Who acts: Writing. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Huon Returned, His Errand Fulfilled, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How Huon Returned, His Errand Fulfilled, sentence 129

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Writing he strove to acquire in his mature years, but could not learn the art.

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**Who acts:** Writing · **What happens:** strive, acquire, not learn · **To what, where:** art

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How Huon Returned, His Errand Fulfilled. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Writing), 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:pg75339:42:129
# text = Writing he strove to acquire in his mature years, but could not learn the art.
1	Writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	strove	strive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	acquire	acquire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mature	mature	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strive** | past | Writing |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **acquire** | to-infinitive | Writing *not said here* |  |  |  | year |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **not** **learn** | could | Writing *not said here* | the art |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent art=Topic |

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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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