---
title: But even as he spake, they were aware of two men on horseback. — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: But even as he spake, they were aware of two men on horseback. Who acts: Naymes. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Coming of Roland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, The Coming of Roland, sentence 43

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But even as he spake, they were aware of two men on horseback.

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**Who acts:** Naymes · **What happens:** be

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This is a sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, The Coming of Roland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Naymes), 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:pg75339:6:43
# text = But even as he spake, they were aware of two men on horseback.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	even	even	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	spake	speak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	aware	aware	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	horseback	horseback	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Naymes |  |  |  |  | of two men on horseback; aware *property* | 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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