Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 5, sentence 50
Those who had come thither, and had, as it were, found Sir Gawain in the very act of slaying, were of one mind that they should beset him, behind and afore, on horse and afoot, and if it might be take his life.
Who acts: need, act, Those, helmets, it · What happens: come, have, be, slay, beset · To what, where: act, Gawain
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (need, act, Those, helmets), 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 | Those | that | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 27 mind | nsubj |
| 2 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 4 come | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 come | aux |
| 4 | come | come | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 1 Those | acl:relcl |
| 5 | thither | thither | ADV | _ | 4 come | advmod |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 had | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 had | cc |
| 8 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 1 Those | acl:relcl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 found | punct |
| 10 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 14 found | mark |
| 11 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 found | nsubj |
| 12 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 found | cop |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 found | punct |
| 14 | found | find | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 had | conj |
| 15 | Sir | Sir | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 Gawain | nmod:desc |
| 16 | Gawain | Gawain | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 found | obj |
| 17 | in | in | ADP | _ | 20 act | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 act | det |
| 19 | very | very | ADV | _ | 20 act | advmod |
| 20 | act | act | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 found | obl |
| 21 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 22 slaying | mark |
| 22 | slaying | slay | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 20 act | acl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Those | punct |
| 24 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 mind | cop |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 mind | case |
| 26 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 27 mind | nummod |
| 27 | mind | mind | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 31 beset | mark |
| 29 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 beset | nsubj |
| 30 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 31 beset | aux |
| 31 | beset | beset | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 mind | acl |
| 32 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 beset | obj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 behind | punct |
| 34 | behind | behind | ADV | _ | 31 beset | advmod |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 afore | cc |
| 36 | afore | afore | ADV | _ | 34 behind | conj |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 horse | punct |
| 38 | on | on | ADP | _ | 39 horse | case |
| 39 | horse | horse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 beset | parataxis |
| 40 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 afoot | cc |
| 41 | afoot | afoot | ADV | _ | 39 horse | conj |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 48 take | punct |
| 43 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 48 take | cc |
| 44 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 48 take | mark |
| 45 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 take | nsubj |
| 46 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 48 take | aux |
| 47 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 48 take | cop |
| 48 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 beset | conj |
| 49 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 50 life | nmod:poss |
| 50 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 take | obj |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 27 mind | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past · perfect | who nsubj; thither property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | have | past | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 3 | is | past | need | the act | Gawain Sir obj; find property | tree rules | |||
| 4 | slay | gerund | the act not said here | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | is | past | Those | of one mind | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | beset | should | helmets = helmet | Gawain | horse parataxis; behind property | tree rules | |||
| 7 | is a condition, not said to happen | might | it | Gawain's life obj; take property | tree rules |
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/pg8447/5/50/