Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 7, sentence 54
He defended him so well with his mighty blows that none might come at him to harm him; he felled them by twos and by threes, some under their horses, some beside them.
Who acts: Sir, mighty blows · What happens: defend, come, harm, fell, blow · To what, where: folk, Sir, blows
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sir, mighty blows), 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 | 2 defended | nsubj |
| 2 | defended | defend | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 defended | obj |
| 4 | so | so | ADV | _ | 5 well | advmod |
| 5 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 2 defended | advmod |
| 6 | with | with | ADP | _ | 9 blows | case |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 blows | nmod:poss |
| 8 | mighty | mighty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 blows | amod |
| 9 | blows | blow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 defended | obl |
| 10 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 13 come | nsubj |
| 11 | none | none | PRON | PronType=Neg | 13 come | nsubj |
| 12 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 13 come | aux |
| 13 | come | come | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 blows | acl:relcl |
| 14 | at | at | ADP | _ | 15 him | case |
| 15 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 come | obl |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 harm | mark |
| 17 | harm | harm | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 come | advcl |
| 18 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 harm | obj |
| 19 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 21 felled | punct |
| 20 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 felled | nsubj |
| 21 | felled | fell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 defended | conj |
| 22 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 felled | obj |
| 23 | by | by | ADP | _ | 24 twos | case |
| 24 | twos | two | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 felled | obl |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 threes | cc |
| 26 | by | by | ADP | _ | 27 threes | case |
| 27 | threes | three | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 twos | conj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 some | punct |
| 29 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 24 twos | conj |
| 30 | under | under | ADP | _ | 32 horses | case |
| 31 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 horses | nmod:poss |
| 32 | horses | horse | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 some | nmod |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 some | punct |
| 34 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 24 twos | conj |
| 35 | beside | beside | ADP | _ | 36 them | case |
| 36 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 some | nmod |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 defended | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | defend | past | Sir | folk | with Sir's mighty blows; well property | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary | |||
| 2 | come | might | Sir's mighty blows | at Sir; none nsubj | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at he=Location | ||||
| 3 | harm | to-infinitive | Sir's mighty blows not said here | Sir | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer | ||||
| 4 | fell | past | Sir | blows = blow | by twos and threes | tree rules | |||
| 5 | blow | Sir | nom blow «act intransitive»: poss=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/pg8447/7/54/