---
title: Now if the knights had been astounded at the first, yet stiller were… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now if the knights had been astounded at the first, yet stiller were they all, high and low, when they had heard his words. Who acts: stiller, words, Knight. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 2, sentence 47

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Now if the knights had been astounded at the first, yet stiller were they all, high and low, when they had heard his words.

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**Who acts:** stiller, words, Knight · **What happens:** astound, be, hear, word · **To what, where:** knights, first, words

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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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stiller, words, Knight), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66084:2:47
# text = Now if the knights had been astounded at the first, yet stiller were they all, high and low, when they had heard his words.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	astounded	astound	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	stiller	stiller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	parataxis	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **astound** | past · perfect · passive |  | the knights |  | the first | now |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | stiller | words *= word* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hear** | past · perfect | words *= word* | Knight's words |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 4 | **word** |  | Knight |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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.

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**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.

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