Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 3, sentence 60
They who will be ever fighting, and ne'er avoid a combat, an they hold such custom for long, though at whiles they escape, yet shall they find their master, who will perforce change their mood!
Who acts: knight, master · What happens: be, avoid, hold, escape, find, perforce · To what, where: combat, such custom, whiles, master, mood
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knight, master), 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 | 6 fighting | nsubj |
| 2 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 6 fighting | nsubj |
| 3 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 6 fighting | aux |
| 4 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 6 fighting | cop |
| 5 | ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 6 fighting | advmod |
| 6 | fighting | fight | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 avoid | punct |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 avoid | cc |
| 9 | ne'er | ne'er | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 avoid | compound |
| 10 | avoid | avoid | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 fighting | advcl |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 combat | det |
| 12 | combat | combat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 avoid | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 hold | punct |
| 14 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 hold | det |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 hold | nsubj |
| 16 | hold | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 avoid | conj |
| 17 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 custom | amod |
| 18 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 hold | obj |
| 19 | for | for | ADP | _ | 20 long | case |
| 20 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 hold | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 whiles | punct |
| 22 | though | though | ADP | _ | 24 whiles | case |
| 23 | at | at | ADP | _ | 24 whiles | case |
| 24 | whiles | while | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 avoid | obl |
| 25 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 escape | nsubj |
| 26 | escape | escape | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 24 whiles | acl:relcl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 find | punct |
| 28 | yet | yet | CCONJ | _ | 31 find | cc |
| 29 | shall | shall | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 31 find | aux |
| 30 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 find | nsubj |
| 31 | find | find | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 fighting | parataxis |
| 32 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 33 master | nmod:poss |
| 33 | master | master | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 find | obj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 perforce | punct |
| 35 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 37 perforce | nsubj |
| 36 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 37 perforce | aux |
| 37 | perforce | perforce | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 33 master | acl:relcl |
| 38 | change | change | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 find | conj |
| 39 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 40 mood | nmod:poss |
| 40 | mood | mood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 change | obj |
| 41 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 6 fighting | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | future | knight | ever | who nsubj; fight property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | avoid | infinitive | knight not said here | a combat | while | ne'er compound | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent combat=Location | ||
| 3 | hold | present | knight | such custom | for long | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent custom=Theme | |||
| 4 | escape | present | knight | whiles not said here | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme while=Initial_Location | ||||
| 5 | find | shall | knight | knight's master | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent master=Topic | ||||
| 6 | perforce | future | knight's master | tree rules | |||||
| 7 | change | infinitive | knight not said here | knight's mood | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mood=Patient |
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/pg8447/3/60/