Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 9, sentence 70
And the boatman was fain to flee when he beheld him and he drew nigh to him, for he had seen him aforetime.
Who acts: boatman, crossing · What happens: be, flee, behold, draw, see · To what, where: riding
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boatman, crossing), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 fain | cc |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 boatman | det |
| 3 | boatman | boatman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 fain | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 fain | cop |
| 5 | fain | fain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 flee | mark |
| 7 | flee | flee | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 fain | xcomp |
| 8 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 beheld | advmod |
| 9 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 beheld | nsubj |
| 10 | beheld | behold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 flee | advcl |
| 11 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 beheld | obj |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 drew | cc |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 drew | nsubj |
| 14 | drew | draw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 beheld | conj |
| 15 | nigh | nigh | ADV | _ | 14 drew | advmod |
| 16 | to | to | ADP | _ | 17 him | case |
| 17 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 drew | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 seen | punct |
| 19 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 22 seen | mark |
| 20 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 seen | nsubj |
| 21 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 seen | aux |
| 22 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 14 drew | conj |
| 23 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 seen | obj |
| 24 | aforetime | aforetime | ADV | _ | 22 seen | advmod |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 fain | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the boatman | fain property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | flee | to-infinitive | the boatman not said here | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | behold | past | crossing | riding | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | draw | past | crossing | riding | nigh property | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to he=Destination | |||
| 5 | see | past · perfect | crossing | riding | aforetime property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
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/pg8447/9/70/