Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 2, sentence 18

The knight bore no helm nor hauberk, neither gorget nor breast-plate, neither shaft nor buckler to smite nor to shield, but in one hand he had a holly-bough, that is greenest when the groves are bare, and in his other an axe, huge and uncomely, a cruel weapon in fashion, if one would picture it.

Who acts: knight, that, groves, one · What happens: bear, smite, shield, have, be, picture · To what, where: helm, other axe, holly bough, one hand, bough

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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knight, that, groves, one), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 knight	det
2	knight	knight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bore	nsubj
3	bore	bear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 helm	det
5	helm	helm	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bore	obj
6	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	7 hauberk	cc
7	hauberk	hauberk	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 helm	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 gorget	punct
9	neither	neither	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	10 gorget	cc:preconj
10	gorget	gorget	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bore	obl
11	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	14 plate	cc
12	breast	breast	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 plate	compound
13	-	-	PUNCT	_	12 breast	punct
14	plate	plate	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 gorget	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 shaft	punct
16	neither	neither	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	17 shaft	cc:preconj
17	shaft	shaft	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 gorget	appos
18	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	19 buckler	cc
19	buckler	buckler	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 shaft	conj
20	to	to	PART	_	21 smite	mark
21	smite	smite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 shaft	acl
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	24 shield	cc
23	to	to	PART	_	24 shield	mark
24	shield	shield	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	21 smite	conj
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 had	punct
26	but	but	CCONJ	_	31 had	cc
27	in	in	ADP	_	29 hand	case
28	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	29 hand	nummod
29	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 had	obl
30	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 had	nsubj
31	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 bore	conj
32	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	35 bough	det
33	holly	holly	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 bough	compound
34	-	-	PUNCT	_	33 holly	punct
35	bough	bough	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 had	obj
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 greenest	punct
37	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	39 greenest	nsubj
38	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	39 greenest	cop
39	greenest	green	ADJ	Degree=Sup	31 had	parataxis
40	when	when	SCONJ	_	44 bare	mark
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 groves	det
42	groves	grove	NOUN	Number=Plur	44 bare	nsubj
43	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	44 bare	cop
44	bare	bare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	39 greenest	advcl
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 axe	punct
46	and	and	CCONJ	_	51 axe	cc
47	in	in	ADP	_	51 axe	case
48	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	51 axe	nmod:poss
49	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 axe	amod
50	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	51 axe	det
51	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bore	obl
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 huge	punct
53	huge	huge	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 axe	amod
54	and	and	CCONJ	_	55 uncomely	cc
55	uncomely	uncomely	ADV	_	53 huge	conj
56	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 weapon	punct
57	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	59 weapon	det
58	cruel	cruel	ADJ	Degree=Pos	59 weapon	amod
59	weapon	weapon	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 axe	appos
60	in	in	ADP	_	61 fashion	case
61	fashion	fashion	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 weapon	nmod
62	,	,	PUNCT	_	66 picture	punct
63	if	if	SCONJ	_	66 picture	mark
64	one	one	PRON	Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	66 picture	nsubj
65	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	66 picture	aux
66	picture	picture	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 bore	parataxis
67	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	66 picture	obj
68	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 bore	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	bear	past	the knight	no helm nor hauberk	Knight's other axe	gorget nor breast plate obl	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent helm=Patient
2	smite	to-infinitive	the knight not said here				vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
3	shield	to-infinitive	the knight not said here				tree rules
4	have	past	Knight	a holly bough	one hand		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bough=Patient
5	is	present	that			green property	tree rules
6	is	present	the groves			bare property	tree rules
7	picture a condition, not said to happen	would	one	bough			vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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/pg66084/2/18/

🌲 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 2, sentence 18

The tree

Pragmatics

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 2, sentence 18