---
title: Never did he come to a stream or a ford but he found a foe before hi… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: Never did he come to a stream or a ford but he found a foe before him, and that one so marvellous, so foul and fell, that it behoved him to fight. Who acts: Sir, foe. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Openi
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 3, sentence 79

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Never did he come to a stream or a ford but he found a foe before him, and that one so marvellous, so foul and fell, that it behoved him to fight.

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**Who acts:** Sir, foe · **What happens:** not come, find, fall, behove, fight · **To what, where:** stream, foe, Sir

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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 (Sir, foe), 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:pg66084:3:79
# text = Never did he come to a stream or a ford but he found a foe before him, and that one so marvellous, so foul and fell, that it behoved him to fight.
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	ford	ford	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	foe	foe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	before	before	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nsubj	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	marvellous	marvellous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	foul	foul	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	behoved	behove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **come** | past · do-support | Sir |  |  | a stream or a ford |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to stream=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **find** | past | Sir | a foe |  |  | before cliff |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foe=Topic |
| 3 | **fall** | past | Sir *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **behove** | past | foe | Sir |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fight** | to-infinitive | foe *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=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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