---
title: What madness, to venture every thing upon a desperate chance, when t… — Legends of the conquest of Spain · tree and pragmatics
description: What madness, to venture every thing upon a desperate chance, when thou knewest I was coming with a force to make the victory secure! Who acts: thou, I. A sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Muza Arrives At Toledo.—interview Between Him and Taric., with its dependenc
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/32/20/)

<!-- 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 Arrives At Toledo.—interview Betw…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/32/) / 20

# Legends of the conquest of Spain, Muza Arrives At Toledo.—interview Between Him and Taric., sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What madness, to venture every thing upon a desperate chance, when thou knewest I was coming with a force to make the victory secure!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thou, I · **What happens:** venture, know, come, make · **To what, where:** thing, victory · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Muza Arrives At Toledo.—interview Between Him and Taric.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thou, I), 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:pg77685:32:20
# text = What madness, to venture every thing upon a desperate chance, when thou knewest I was coming with a force to make the victory secure!
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obl	_	_
2	madness	madness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	venture	venture	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	desperate	desperate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nsubj	_	_
15	knewest	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	ccomp	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	force	force	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	victory	victory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	secure	secure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **venture** | to-infinitive |  | every thing |  |  |  | upon a desperate chance; What  madness *obl* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
| 2 | **know** | past | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | past · progressive | I |  |  |  |  | with a force | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | the victory |  |  |  | secure *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset victory=Product |

<!-- .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 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/32/19/)
- next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/32/21/)
- ↑ back to [Muza Arrives At Toledo.—interview Between Him and Taric.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77685/32/)