---
title: Gawain gripped his axe and raised it on high, the left foot he set f… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: Gawain gripped his axe and raised it on high, the left foot he set forward on the floor, and let the blow fall lightly on the bare neck. Who acts: Gawain, blow. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, pa
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 2, sentence 84

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Gawain gripped his axe and raised it on high, the left foot he set forward on the floor, and let the blow fall lightly on the bare neck.

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**Who acts:** Gawain, blow · **What happens:** grip, raise, set forward, let, fall · **To what, where:** axe, high, left foot, floor, bare neck

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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 (Gawain, blow), 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:pg66084:2:84
# text = Gawain gripped his axe and raised it on high, the left foot he set forward on the floor, and let the blow fall lightly on the bare neck.
1	Gawain	Gawain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gripped	grip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	raised	raise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	fall	fall	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	xcomp	_	_
26	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grip** | past | Gawain | Gawain's axe |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent axe=Theme |
| 2 | **raise** | past | Gawain *not said here* | axe |  | high |  | the left foot *obl* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on high=Destination |
| 3 | **set forward** | past | Gawain | the left foot *not said here* |  | the floor |  | forward *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent foot=Theme on floor=Destination |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall** | present | the blow |  |  | the bare neck |  | lightly *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on neck=Location |

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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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