---
title: They held wide open the great gates, and he greeted them courteously… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: They held wide open the great gates, and he greeted them courteously, and rode over the bridge. Who acts: gates, Sir. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 4, sentence 13

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They held wide open the great gates, and he greeted them courteously, and rode over the bridge.

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**Who acts:** gates, Sir · **What happens:** hold, open, greet, ride · **To what, where:** great gates, gates, bridge

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gates, Sir), 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:pg66084:4:13
# text = They held wide open the great gates, and he greeted them courteously, and rode over the bridge.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	wide	wide	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	greeted	greet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	courteously	courteously	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	over	over	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | gates *= gate* |  |  |  |  | wide *property* | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **open** | infinitive | gates *= gate* *not said here* | the great gates |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location gate=Theme |
| 3 | **greet** *speech: greet* | past | Sir |  | gates *= gate* |  |  | courteously *property* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 4 | **ride** | past | gates *= gate* *not said here* |  |  | the bridge |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over bridge=Trajectory |

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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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