Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 5, sentence 27
Thus were they driven on the hills, and harassed at the waters, so well did the men know their work, and the greyhounds were so great and swift that they ran them down as fast as the hunters could slay them.
Who acts: men, greyhounds, hunters · What happens: drive, harass, do, know, be, swift · To what, where: hunters, hills, waters, work, greyhounds
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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, greyhounds, hunters), 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 | Thus | thus | ADV | _ | 4 driven | advmod |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 driven | aux:pass |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 driven | nsubj |
| 4 | driven | drive | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | on | on | ADP | _ | 7 hills | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 hills | det |
| 7 | hills | hill | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 driven | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 harassed | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 harassed | cc |
| 10 | harassed | harass | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 driven | conj |
| 11 | at | at | ADP | _ | 13 waters | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 waters | det |
| 13 | waters | water | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 harassed | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 did | punct |
| 15 | so | so | ADV | _ | 17 did | advmod |
| 16 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 17 did | advmod |
| 17 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 harassed | conj |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 men | det |
| 19 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 know | nsubj |
| 20 | know | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 did | parataxis |
| 21 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 work | nmod:poss |
| 22 | work | work | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 know | obj |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 great | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 great | cc |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 greyhounds | det |
| 26 | greyhounds | greyhound | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 great | nsubj |
| 27 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 great | cop |
| 28 | so | so | ADV | _ | 29 great | advmod |
| 29 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 driven | conj |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 swift | cc |
| 31 | swift | swift | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 great | conj |
| 32 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 34 ran | mark |
| 33 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 ran | nsubj |
| 34 | ran | run | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 swift | advcl |
| 35 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 ran | obj |
| 36 | down | down | ADP | _ | 34 ran | compound:prt |
| 37 | as | as | ADV | _ | 38 fast | advmod |
| 38 | fast | fast | ADV | Degree=Pos | 34 ran | advmod |
| 39 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 43 slay | mark |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 hunters | det |
| 41 | hunters | hunter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 slay | nsubj |
| 42 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 43 slay | aux |
| 43 | slay | slay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 38 fast | advcl |
| 44 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 slay | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 driven | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | drive | past · passive | hunters = hunter | the hills | thus property | vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on hill=Destination | |||
| 2 | harass | participle | the waters | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 3 | do | past | well property | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | know | present | the men | hunters's work | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer work=Stimulus | ||||
| 5 | is | past | the greyhounds | great property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | swift | present | the greyhounds not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 7 | run down | past | greyhounds = greyhound | hunters = hunter | fast property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Trajectory | |||
| 8 | slay | could | the hunters | greyhounds = greyhound | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient | ||||
| 9 | work | hunters = hunter | nom work «act intransitive»: 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/pg66084/5/27/