Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 11, sentence 78
They thought to remain upon the battlements, and throw from the castle stones so great and so heavy that the king should be driven from the walls out on to the open field where he had pitched his tents.
Who acts: knights, King · What happens: think, remain, throw, drive, pitch · To what, where: battlements, castle stones, king, walls, tents · Speech: someone speaks here
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, King), 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 thought | nsubj |
| 2 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | PART | _ | 4 remain | mark |
| 4 | remain | remain | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 thought | ccomp |
| 5 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 7 battlements | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 battlements | det |
| 7 | battlements | battlement | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 remain | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 throw | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 throw | cc |
| 10 | throw | throw | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 remain | conj |
| 11 | from | from | ADP | _ | 14 stones | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 stones | det |
| 13 | castle | castle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 stones | compound |
| 14 | stones | stone | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 throw | obl |
| 15 | so | so | ADV | _ | 16 great | advmod |
| 16 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 throw | advcl |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 heavy | cc |
| 18 | so | so | ADV | _ | 19 heavy | advmod |
| 19 | heavy | heavy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 thought | ccomp |
| 20 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 25 driven | mark |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 king | det |
| 22 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 driven | nsubj:pass |
| 23 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 driven | aux |
| 24 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 25 driven | aux:pass |
| 25 | driven | drive | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 19 heavy | ccomp |
| 26 | from | from | ADP | _ | 28 walls | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 walls | det |
| 28 | walls | wall | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 driven | obl |
| 29 | out | out | ADP | _ | 28 walls | compound:prt |
| 30 | on | on | ADP | _ | 34 field | case |
| 31 | to | to | ADP | _ | 34 field | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 field | det |
| 33 | open | open | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 34 field | amod |
| 34 | field | field | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 walls | nmod |
| 35 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 38 pitched | advmod |
| 36 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 pitched | nsubj |
| 37 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 38 pitched | aux |
| 38 | pitched | pitch | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 34 field | acl:relcl |
| 39 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 40 tents | nmod:poss |
| 40 | tents | tent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 pitched | obj |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 thought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | think speech: other | past | knights = knight | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 2 | remain | to-infinitive | the battlements | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon battlement=Location | |||||
| 3 | throw | infinitive | the castle stones | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent from stone=Initial_Location | |||||
| 4 | drive | should · passive | the king | the walls on the open field | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme from wall=Trajectory | ||||
| 5 | pitch | past · perfect | King | King's tents | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tent=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: «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/pg8447/11/78/