Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 4, sentence 31
And while he sat thus the serving men set up a table on trestles, and covered it with a fair white cloth, and set thereon salt-cellar, and napkin, and silver spoons; and the knight washed at his will, and set him down to meat.
Who acts: fire, serving men, knight · What happens: sit, set up, cover, set, wash, set down · To what, where: serving men, table, trestles, salt cellar, fire
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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fire, serving men, knight), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 4 sat | cc |
| 2 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 sat | mark |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 sat | nsubj |
| 4 | sat | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | thus | thus | ADV | _ | 4 sat | advmod |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 men | det |
| 7 | serving | serving | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 men | compound |
| 8 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 sat | obj |
| 9 | set | set | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 men | acl |
| 10 | up | up | ADP | _ | 9 set | compound:prt |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 table | det |
| 12 | table | table | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 set | obj |
| 13 | on | on | ADP | _ | 14 trestles | case |
| 14 | trestles | trestle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 table | nmod |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 covered | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 covered | cc |
| 17 | covered | cover | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 sat | conj |
| 18 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 covered | obj |
| 19 | with | with | ADP | _ | 23 cloth | case |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 cloth | det |
| 21 | fair | fair | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 cloth | amod |
| 22 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 cloth | amod |
| 23 | cloth | cloth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 covered | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 set | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 set | cc |
| 26 | set | set | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 sat | advcl |
| 27 | thereon | thereon | ADV | _ | 30 cellar | advmod |
| 28 | salt | salt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 cellar | compound |
| 29 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 28 salt | punct |
| 30 | cellar | cellar | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 set | obj |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 napkin | punct |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 napkin | cc |
| 33 | napkin | napkin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sat | obl |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 spoons | punct |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 spoons | cc |
| 36 | silver | silver | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 spoons | amod |
| 37 | spoons | spoon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 napkin | conj |
| 38 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 42 washed | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 42 washed | cc |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 knight | det |
| 41 | knight | knight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 washed | nsubj |
| 42 | washed | wash | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 sat | conj |
| 43 | at | at | ADP | _ | 45 will | case |
| 44 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 45 will | nmod:poss |
| 45 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 42 washed | advcl |
| 46 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 48 set | punct |
| 47 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 48 set | cc |
| 48 | set | set | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 42 washed | advcl |
| 49 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 set | obj |
| 50 | down | down | ADP | _ | 48 set | compound:prt |
| 51 | to | to | ADP | _ | 52 meat | case |
| 52 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 set | obl |
| 53 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 sat | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sit | past | fire | the serving men | napkin and silver spoons obl; thus property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location man=Theme | |||
| 2 | set up | participle | the serving men not said here | a table | trestles | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent table=Theme on trestle=Destination | |||
| 3 | cover | past | fire not said here | table | with a fair white cloth | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Destination with cloth=Theme | |||
| 4 | set | infinitive | fire not said here | salt cellar | vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient cellar=Result | ||||
| 5 | wash | past | the knight | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | set down | infinitive | the knight not said here | fire | to meat | vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient he=Result |
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/pg66084/4/31/