---
title: But it passed the skill of man to hold the place against such odds a… — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: But it passed the skill of man to hold the place against such odds as were brought against them. Who acts: castle. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How It Fared With the Brethren, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/5/60/)

<!-- 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 It Fared With the Brethren](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/5/) / 60

# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, How It Fared With the Brethren, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it passed the skill of man to hold the place against such odds as were brought against them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** castle · **What happens:** pass, hold, bring · **To what, where:** skill, place, such odds

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, How It Fared With the Brethren. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (castle), 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:pg75339:5:60
# text = But it passed the skill of man to hold the place against such odds as were brought against them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	against	against	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	odds	odd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
18	against	against	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past | castle | the skill of man |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme skill=Trajectory |
| 2 | **hold** | to-infinitive | castle *not said here* | the place |  | such odds |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent place=Theme against odd=Location |
| 3 | **bring** | past · passive | castle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | against men *= man* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: against they=Destination |

<!-- .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 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/5/59/)
- next →: [sentence 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/5/61/)
- ↑ back to [How It Fared With the Brethren](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75339/5/)