---
title: Let us defend our city the best way we can; surely we can hold out l… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: Let us defend our city the best way we can; surely we can hold out longer than the life of this greybeard.” Who acts: you, us, we. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Muza Besieges the City of Merida., 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/pg77685/30/50/)

<!-- 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/) / [Legends of the conquest of Spain](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/) / [Muza Besieges the City of Merida.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/30/) / 50

# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Muza Besieges the City of Merida., sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Let us defend our city the best way we can; surely we can hold out longer than the life of this greybeard.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, us, we · **What happens:** let, defend, hold out · **To what, where:** us, city

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Muza Besieges the City of Merida.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, us, we), 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:pg77685:30:50
# text = Let us defend our city the best way we can; surely we can hold out longer than the life of this greybeard.”
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	defend	defend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
4	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	amod	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
16	out	out	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	greybeard	greybeard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **defend** | infinitive | us *not said here* | our city |  |  |  | the best way *obl:unmarked* | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent city=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **hold out** | can | we |  |  |  |  | than the life of this greybeard; long, out, surely *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/30/49/)
- next →: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/30/51/)
- ↑ back to [Muza Besieges the City of Merida.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/30/)