Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 4, sentence 5
There saw they the hermit, who seemed to them a right good man; and they dismounted at his little window, and asked his tidings, if perchance a knight in red armour had passed that way?
Who acts: hermit, letters · What happens: see, seem, dismount, ask, pass · To what, where: letters, good man, little window, tidings, perchance
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hermit, letters), 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 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 saw | expl |
| 2 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 saw | obj |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 hermit | det |
| 5 | hermit | hermit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 saw | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 seemed | punct |
| 7 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 8 seemed | nsubj |
| 8 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 hermit | acl:relcl |
| 9 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 them | case |
| 10 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 seemed | obl |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 man | det |
| 12 | right | right | ADV | _ | 13 good | advmod |
| 13 | good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 man | amod |
| 14 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 seemed | xcomp |
| 15 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 dismounted | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 dismounted | cc |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 dismounted | nsubj |
| 18 | dismounted | dismount | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 saw | conj |
| 19 | at | at | ADP | _ | 22 window | case |
| 20 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 window | nmod:poss |
| 21 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 window | amod |
| 22 | window | window | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 dismounted | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 asked | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 asked | cc |
| 25 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 saw | parataxis |
| 26 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 27 tidings | nmod:poss |
| 27 | tidings | tiding | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 asked | obj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 passed | punct |
| 29 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 37 passed | mark |
| 30 | perchance | perchance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 passed | nsubj:pass |
| 31 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 32 knight | det |
| 32 | knight | knight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 passed | nsubj:pass |
| 33 | in | in | ADP | _ | 35 armour | case |
| 34 | red | red | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 armour | amod |
| 35 | armour | armour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 knight | nmod |
| 36 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 passed | aux |
| 37 | passed | pass | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 25 asked | ccomp |
| 38 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 39 way | det |
| 39 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 passed | obl:unmarked |
| 40 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 2 saw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | past | letters = letter | there | the hermit obj | tree rules | |||
| 2 | seem | past | the hermit | a good man | letters = letter | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme | |||
| 3 | dismount | past | letters = letter | man's little window | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 4 | ask speech: ask | past | man's tidings | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent tiding=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | pass a condition, not said to happen | past · perfect · passive | perchance | that way obl:unmarked; a knight in red armour nsubj:pass | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
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/pg8447/4/5/