---
title: Courteous knights and comely ladies, all were in sorrow for the love… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: Courteous knights and comely ladies, all were in sorrow for the love of that knight, and though they spake no word of it many were joyless for his sake. Who acts: Courteous knights, knights. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 3, sentence 25

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Courteous knights and comely ladies, all were in sorrow for the love of that knight, and though they spake no word of it many were joyless for his sake.

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**Who acts:** Courteous knights, knights · **What happens:** be, speak, love, word · **To what, where:** sorrow, word, knight, love · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Courteous knights, knights), 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:pg66084:3:25
# text = Courteous knights and comely ladies, all were in sorrow for the love of that knight, and though they spake no word of it many were joyless for his sake.
1	Courteous	courteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	comely	comely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
16	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
19	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	spake	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nmod	_	_
26	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	joyless	joyless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	sake	sake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Courteous knights and comely ladies and all sorrow *not said here* |  |  | all sorrow |  | for the love of that knight | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | knights *= knight* | no word of love |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | Courteous knights and comely ladies and all sorrow |  |  |  |  | for Sir's sake; joyless *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **love** |  |  | that knight |  |  |  |  | nom love «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **word** |  |  | love |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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