Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 6, sentence 36
He would bethink him what 'twere best to do ere he let him be slain or maimed; thus did he hold him within his fortress.
Who acts: host, guest · What happens: bethink, do, ere, let, slay, maim · To what, where: guest
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (host, guest), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 bethink | nsubj |
| 2 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 3 bethink | aux |
| 3 | bethink | bethink | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 4 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 bethink | obj |
| 5 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 8 best | obj |
| 6 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 8 best | punct |
| 7 | twere | twere | ADV | _ | 8 best | advmod |
| 8 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 3 bethink | parataxis |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 do | mark |
| 10 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 best | csubj |
| 11 | ere | ere | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 do | xcomp |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 let | nsubj |
| 13 | let | let | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 ere | ccomp |
| 14 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 let | obj |
| 15 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 16 slain | aux:pass |
| 16 | slain | slay | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 13 let | xcomp |
| 17 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 18 maimed | cc |
| 18 | maimed | maim | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 slain | conj |
| 19 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 23 hold | punct |
| 20 | thus | thus | ADV | _ | 23 hold | advmod |
| 21 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 hold | aux |
| 22 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 hold | nsubj |
| 23 | hold | hold | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 bethink | conj |
| 24 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 hold | obj |
| 25 | within | within | ADP | _ | 27 fortress | case |
| 26 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 27 fortress | nmod:poss |
| 27 | fortress | fortress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 hold | obl |
| 28 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 bethink | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bethink | would | host | guest | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | do | to-infinitive | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | ere | infinitive | tree rules | ||||||
| 4 | let | infinitive | host | guest | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | slay | infinitive · passive | guest not said here | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP» | |||||
| 6 | maim | participle | guest not said here | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | hold | past · do-support | host | guest | within host's fortress; thus property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
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/pg8447/6/36/