---
title: Can you eat," said the King, "being in such a plight?" — Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of F… · tree and pragmatics
description: Can you eat," said the King, "being in such a plight?" Who acts: you, King. A sentence of «Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France» by Alfred John Church, More Deeds of Mawgis, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Stories of Charlemagne and the twelve Peers of France, More Deeds of Mawgis, sentence 31

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Can you eat," said the King, "being in such a plight?"

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**Who acts:** you, King · **What happens:** eat, say, be · **To what, where:** plight · **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, More Deeds of Mawgis. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, King), 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:pg75339:9:31
# text = Can you eat," said the King, "being in such a plight?"
1	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	cop	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	15	det:predet	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	plight	plight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | the King |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  | such plight |  |  | 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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