---
title: Twas the fairest castle that ever a knight owned;[7] built in a mead… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: Twas the fairest castle that ever a knight owned;[7] built in a meadow with a park all about it, and a spiked palisade, closely driven, that enclosed the trees for more than two miles. Who acts: Twas, spiked palisade. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/3/93/)

<!-- 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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/3/) / 93

# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 3, sentence 93

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Twas the fairest castle that ever a knight owned;\[7\] built in a meadow with a park all about it, and a spiked palisade, closely driven, that enclosed the trees for more than two miles.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Twas, spiked palisade · **What happens:** own, build, spike, drive, enclose · **To what, where:** fairest castle, 7, spiked palisade, trees, Twas

<!-- .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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Twas, spiked palisade), 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:pg66084:3:93
# text = Twas the fairest castle that ever a knight owned;[7] built in a meadow with a park all about it, and a spiked palisade, closely driven, that enclosed the trees for more than two miles.
1	Twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	fairest	fair	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	8	advmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	owned	own	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	7	7	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	12	punct	_	_
14	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	acl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	park	park	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	spiked	spike	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	amod	_	_
28	palisade	palisade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
34	enclosed	enclose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	_
37	for	for	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	40	advmod	_	_
39	than	than	ADP	IN	_	38	fixed	_	_
40	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
41	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **own** | participle · passive |  | the fairest castle |  |  |  | a knight *nsubj:pass* | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **build** | participle | Twas *not said here* | 7 |  |  |  | about castle; in a meadow with a park | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in meadow=Attribute |
| 3 | **spike** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **drive** | participle |  | a spiked palisade *not said here* |  |  |  | closely *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **enclose** | past | a spiked palisade | the trees |  |  |  | for two miles; that *nsubj* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme tree=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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 92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/3/92/)
- next →: [sentence 94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/3/94/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/3/)