Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 11, sentence 43
They met many folk, men women and children who would flee the land; they drave their cattle before them and were laden with their goods; some were ahorse, some afoot, 'twas the best they might do to their thinking.
Who acts: knights, children, some, twas · What happens: meet, flee, drave, lade, be, do · To what, where: many folk, land, cattle
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knights, children, some, twas), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 met | nsubj |
| 2 | met | meet | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 folk | amod |
| 4 | folk | folk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 met | obj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 women | punct |
| 6 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 women | compound |
| 7 | women | woman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 folk | conj |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 children | cc |
| 9 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 women | conj |
| 10 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 12 flee | nsubj |
| 11 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 flee | aux |
| 12 | flee | flee | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 children | acl:relcl |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 land | det |
| 14 | land | land | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 flee | obj |
| 15 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 17 drave | punct |
| 16 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 drave | nsubj |
| 17 | drave | drave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 met | parataxis |
| 18 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 cattle | nmod:poss |
| 19 | cattle | cattle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 drave | obj |
| 20 | before | before | ADP | _ | 21 them | case |
| 21 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 drave | obl |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 laden | cc |
| 23 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 laden | aux:pass |
| 24 | laden | lade | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 drave | conj |
| 25 | with | with | ADP | _ | 27 goods | case |
| 26 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 27 goods | nmod:poss |
| 27 | goods | goods | NOUN | Number=Ptan | 24 laden | obl |
| 28 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 31 ahorse | punct |
| 29 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 31 ahorse | nsubj |
| 30 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 ahorse | cop |
| 31 | ahorse | ahorse | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 met | parataxis |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 twas | punct |
| 33 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 37 twas | det |
| 34 | afoot | afoot | ADV | _ | 37 twas | advmod |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 afoot | punct |
| 36 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 37 twas | punct |
| 37 | twas | twa | NOUN | Number=Plur | 39 best | nsubj |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 best | det |
| 39 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 31 ahorse | conj |
| 40 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 do | nsubj |
| 41 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 42 do | aux |
| 42 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 39 best | acl:relcl |
| 43 | to | to | ADP | _ | 45 thinking | case |
| 44 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 45 thinking | nmod:poss |
| 45 | thinking | thinking | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 do | obl |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 met | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | meet | past | knights = knight | many folk and men women and children | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent folk=Co-Agent | ||||
| 2 | flee | would | children | the land | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme land=Initial_Location | ||||
| 3 | drave | present | knights = knight | knights's cattle | before cattle | tree rules | |||
| 4 | lade | past · passive | knights = knight not said here | with knights's goods | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | is | past | some | ahorse property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | be | some twas | tree rules | ||||||
| 7 | do | might | knights = knight | to knights's thinking | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 8 | think | knights = knight | nom thinking «cognition 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: «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 8447 (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/pg8447/11/43/