Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 1, sentence 35

Then we turn back to these faded pages, and read the quaintly earnest words in which the old writer reveals the hidden meaning of that mystic symbol, the pentangle, and vindicates Gawain’s title to claim it as his badge—and we smile, perhaps; but we cease to wonder at the widespread popularity of King Arthur’s famous nephew, or at the immense body of romance that claims him as its hero.

Who acts: we, old writer, immense body, Gawain, writer · What happens: turn back, fade, read, reveal, vindicate, claim · To what, where: immense body, earnest words, hidden meaning, title, widespread popularity, writer

This is a sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, old writer, immense body, Gawain), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 turn	advmod
2	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 turn	nsubj
3	turn	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	back	back	ADV	_	3 turn	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 pages	case
6	these	this	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	8 pages	det
7	faded	fade	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 pages	amod
8	pages	page	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 turn	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 read	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 read	cc
11	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 turn	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 words	det
13	quaintly	quaintly	ADV	_	15 words	advmod
14	earnest	earn	ADJ	Degree=Sup	15 words	amod
15	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 read	obj
16	in	in	ADP	_	17 which	case
17	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	21 reveals	obl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 writer	det
19	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 writer	amod
20	writer	writer	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 reveals	nsubj
21	reveals	reveal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 words	acl:relcl
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 meaning	det
23	hidden	hidden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 meaning	amod
24	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 reveals	obj
25	of	of	ADP	_	28 symbol	case
26	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	28 symbol	det
27	mystic	mystic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 symbol	amod
28	symbol	symbol	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 meaning	nmod
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 pentangle	punct
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 pentangle	det
31	pentangle	pentangle	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 symbol	conj
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 vindicates	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	34 vindicates	cc
34	vindicates	vindicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	parataxis
35	Gawain	Gawain	PROPN	Number=Sing	37 title	nmod:poss
36	’s	's	PART	_	35 Gawain	case
37	title	title	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 vindicates	obj
38	to	to	PART	_	39 claim	mark
39	claim	claim	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	37 title	acl
40	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 claim	obj
41	as	as	ADP	_	43 badge	case
42	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	43 badge	nmod:poss
43	badge	badge	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 claim	obl
44	—	-	PUNCT	_	47 smile	punct
45	and	and	CCONJ	_	47 smile	cc
46	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	47 smile	nsubj
47	smile	smile	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	34 vindicates	conj
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 perhaps	punct
49	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	_	47 smile	advmod
50	;	;	PUNCT	_	53 cease	punct
51	but	but	CCONJ	_	53 cease	cc
52	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	53 cease	nsubj
53	cease	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	conj
54	to	to	PART	_	55 wonder	mark
55	wonder	wonder	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	53 cease	xcomp
56	at	at	ADP	_	59 popularity	case
57	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	59 popularity	det
58	widespread	widespread	ADJ	Degree=Pos	59 popularity	amod
59	popularity	popularity	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 wonder	obl
60	of	of	ADP	_	65 nephew	case
61	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	62 Arthur	compound
62	Arthur	Arthur	PROPN	Number=Sing	65 nephew	nmod:poss
63	’s	's	PART	_	62 Arthur	case
64	famous	famous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	65 nephew	amod
65	nephew	nephew	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 popularity	nmod
66	,	,	PUNCT	_	71 body	punct
67	or	or	CCONJ	_	71 body	cc
68	at	at	ADP	_	71 body	case
69	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	71 body	det
70	immense	immense	ADJ	Degree=Pos	71 body	amod
71	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl
72	of	of	ADP	_	73 romance	case
73	romance	romance	NOUN	Number=Sing	71 body	nmod
74	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	75 claims	nsubj
75	claims	claim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	71 body	acl:relcl
76	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	75 claims	obj
77	as	as	ADP	_	79 hero	case
78	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	79 hero	nmod:poss
79	hero	hero	NOUN	Number=Sing	75 claims	obl
80	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 turn	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn back	present	we		the immense body of romance	then	to this faded pages	vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to page=Destination
2	fade	participle						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	read	infinitive	we not said here	the earnest words				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Topic
4	reveal	present	the old writer	the hidden meaning of that mystic symbol and the pentangle	the earnest words			vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
5	vindicate	present		Gawain's title				tree rules
6	claim speech: other	to-infinitive		title			as writer's badge	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic
7	smile	present	we				perhaps property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
8	cease	present	we					vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
9	wonder speech: ask	to-infinitive	we not said here		the widespread popularity of King Arthur's famous nephew			vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
10	claim speech: other	present	the immense body of romance	writer			as body's hero	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent he=Topic
11	mean			that mystic symbol and the pentangle				nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
12	title		Gawain					nom title «communication transitive»: poss=agent
13	badge		writer					nom badge «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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.

Text: «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 66084 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/1/35/

🌲 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 1, sentence 35

The tree

Pragmatics

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 1, sentence 35