Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 2, sentence 27
And the knight answered: "Of that ye would ask me may I tell ye naught, save only that the knight's steed and armour were red as blood, and he seemed to me of Wales by his speech, and by all I might discern of him.
Who acts: knight, that, steed · What happens: answer, ask, tell, save, be, seem · To what, where: knight, naught, ye · 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 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, steed), 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 answered | cc |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 knight | det |
| 3 | knight | knight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 answered | nsubj |
| 4 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 11 ask | punct |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 that | punct |
| 7 | Of | of | ADP | _ | 8 that | case |
| 8 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 11 ask | nsubj |
| 9 | ye | ye | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=2 PronType=Prs Style=Arch | 11 ask | nsubj |
| 10 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 11 ask | aux |
| 11 | ask | ask | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 answered | ccomp |
| 12 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 11 ask | iobj |
| 13 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 15 tell | aux |
| 14 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 15 tell | nsubj |
| 15 | tell | tell | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 ask | conj |
| 16 | ye | ye | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=2 PronType=Prs Style=Arch | 15 tell | iobj |
| 17 | naught | naught | PRON | PronType=Neg | 15 tell | obj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 save | punct |
| 19 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 ask | conj |
| 20 | only | only | ADV | _ | 29 red | advmod |
| 21 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 29 red | mark |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 knight | det |
| 23 | knight | knight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 steed | nmod:poss |
| 24 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 23 knight | case |
| 25 | steed | steed | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 red | nsubj |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 armour | cc |
| 27 | armour | armour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 steed | conj |
| 28 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 red | cop |
| 29 | red | red | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 save | advcl |
| 30 | as | as | ADP | _ | 31 blood | case |
| 31 | blood | blood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 red | obl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 seemed | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 seemed | cc |
| 34 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 seemed | nsubj |
| 35 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 answered | conj |
| 36 | to | to | ADP | _ | 37 me | case |
| 37 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 35 seemed | xcomp |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 39 Wales | case |
| 39 | Wales | Wales | PROPN | Number=Sing | 37 me | nmod |
| 40 | by | by | ADP | _ | 42 speech | case |
| 41 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 speech | nmod:poss |
| 42 | speech | speech | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 seemed | obl |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 49 discern | punct |
| 44 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 49 discern | cc |
| 45 | by | by | ADP | _ | 46 all | case |
| 46 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 49 discern | obl |
| 47 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 49 discern | nsubj |
| 48 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 49 discern | aux |
| 49 | discern | discern | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 answered | conj |
| 50 | of | of | ADP | _ | 51 him | case |
| 51 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 49 discern | obl |
| 52 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 answered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | answer speech: assert | past | the knight | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | ask speech: ask in a quote | would | that | the knight = knight | ye nsubj | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient | |||
| 3 | tell speech: assert in a quote | may | the knight = knight | naught | ye | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent ye=Recipient naught=Topic | |||
| 4 | save in a quote | infinitive | that not said here | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | is in a quote | past | the knight's steed and armour | as blood; red property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | seem in a quote | past | knight | by knight's speech; me xcomp | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 7 | discern in a quote | might | the knight = knight | by all; of knight | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 8 | speak in a quote | knight | nom speech «communication 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/pg8447/2/27/