---
title: Woe to the ruler who founds his hope of sway on the weakness or corr… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: Woe to the ruler who founds his hope of sway on the weakness or corruption of the people! Who acts: ruler, sway. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, The Rise of Don Roderick.—his Government., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the conquest of Spain, The Rise of Don Roderick.—his Government., sentence 1

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Woe to the ruler who founds his hope of sway on the weakness or corruption of the people!

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**Who acts:** ruler, sway · **What happens:** found, hope · **To what, where:** hope, Woe

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, The Rise of Don Roderick.—his Government.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ruler, sway), 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:pg77685:3:1
# text = Woe to the ruler who founds his hope of sway on the weakness or corruption of the people!
1	Woe	woe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ruler	ruler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	founds	found	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	hope	hope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	sway	sway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	weakness	weakness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	corruption	corruption	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **found** | present | the ruler | his hope of sway on the weakness or corruption of the people |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hope=Patient |
| 3 | **hope** |  | sway on the weakness or corruption of the people |  |  |  |  |  | nom hope «feeling intransitive»: of=agent |

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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:** «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Project Gutenberg book 77685 (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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