---
title: How did the Gawain of their imagination, this empty-headed, empty-he… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: How did the Gawain of their imagination, this empty-headed, empty-hearted worldling, cruel murderer, and treacherous friend, ever come to be the typical English hero? Who acts: this, treacherous friend, Gawain. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/1/33/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Mid…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/) / [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/1/) / 33

# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 1, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How did the Gawain of their imagination, this empty-headed, empty-hearted worldling, cruel murderer, and treacherous friend, ever come to be the typical English hero?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** this, treacherous friend, Gawain · **What happens:** do, worldling, come, be, imagine · **To what, where:** Gawain, typical English hero

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, treacherous friend, Gawain), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66084:1:33
# text = How did the Gawain of their imagination, this empty-headed, empty-hearted worldling, cruel murderer, and treacherous friend, ever come to be the typical English hero?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Gawain	Gawain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	imagination	imagination	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
10	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	headed	headed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	hearted	hearted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	worldling	worldling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	murderer	murderer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	treacherous	treacherous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	27	advmod	_	_
27	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	typical	typical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  | the Gawain of Gawain's imagination |  |  |  | treacherous friend *conj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gawain=Eventuality |
| 2 | **worldling** |  | this |  |  |  |  | cruel murderer *conj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | infinitive | treacherous friend *not said here* |  |  |  | ever |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive | treacherous friend *not said here* | the typical English hero |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **imagine** |  | Gawain |  |  |  |  |  | nom imagination «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 66084 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/1/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/1/34/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/1/)