Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 2, sentence 77
I shall tell ye herewith my custom; what knight soever I may meet, were he stronger than five men, and I knew it well, yet would I not hold my hand for fear or favour, but he should answer me, or I should fight against him.
Who acts: I, truth · What happens: tell, knight, meet, be, know, not hold · To what, where: custom, ye, hand, me · 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 (I, truth), 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 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 3 tell | nsubj |
| 2 | shall | shall | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 3 tell | aux |
| 3 | tell | tell | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 4 | ye | ye | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=2 PronType=Prs Style=Arch | 3 tell | iobj |
| 5 | herewith | herewith | ADV | _ | 3 tell | advmod |
| 6 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 custom | nmod:poss |
| 7 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 tell | obj |
| 8 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 10 knight | punct |
| 9 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 10 knight | nsubj |
| 10 | knight | knight | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 tell | parataxis |
| 11 | soever | soever | ADV | _ | 10 knight | advmod |
| 12 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 14 meet | nsubj |
| 13 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 14 meet | aux |
| 14 | meet | meet | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 knight | conj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 stronger | punct |
| 16 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 stronger | cop |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 stronger | nsubj |
| 18 | stronger | strong | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 10 knight | conj |
| 19 | than | than | ADP | _ | 21 men | case |
| 20 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 21 men | nummod |
| 21 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 stronger | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 knew | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 knew | cc |
| 24 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 25 knew | nsubj |
| 25 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 stronger | conj |
| 26 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 knew | obj |
| 27 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 25 knew | advmod |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 hold | punct |
| 29 | yet | yet | CCONJ | _ | 33 hold | cc |
| 30 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 hold | aux |
| 31 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 33 hold | nsubj |
| 32 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 33 hold | advmod |
| 33 | hold | hold | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 knight | conj |
| 34 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 35 hand | nmod:poss |
| 35 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 hold | obj |
| 36 | for | for | ADP | _ | 37 fear | case |
| 37 | fear | fear | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 hold | obl |
| 38 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 39 favour | cc |
| 39 | favour | favour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 fear | conj |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 answer | punct |
| 41 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 44 answer | cc |
| 42 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 44 answer | nsubj |
| 43 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 44 answer | aux |
| 44 | answer | answer | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 knight | conj |
| 45 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 44 answer | obj |
| 46 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 50 fight | punct |
| 47 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 50 fight | cc |
| 48 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 50 fight | nsubj |
| 49 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 50 fight | aux |
| 50 | fight | fight | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 44 answer | conj |
| 51 | against | against | ADP | _ | 52 him | case |
| 52 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 50 fight | obl |
| 53 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 tell | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | shall | I | my custom | ye | herewith property | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent ye=Recipient custom=Topic | ||
| 2 | knight | present | what nsubj; soever property | vn orphan-29.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | meet | may | I | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is | past | truth | than five men; strong property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | know | past | I | custom | well property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus | |||
| 6 | not hold | would | I | my hand | for fear or favour | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme | |||
| 7 | answer speech: assert | should | truth | me | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent i=Eventuality | ||||
| 8 | fight | should | I | against truth | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg8447/2/77/