---
title: What charm lieth in gentle speech shall we learn without asking, sin… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: What charm lieth in gentle speech shall we learn without asking, since here we have welcomed the fine father of courtesy. Who acts: charm, we. 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 dep
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 4, sentence 40

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What charm lieth in gentle speech shall we learn without asking, since here we have welcomed the fine father of courtesy.

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**Who acts:** charm, we · **What happens:** lie, learn, ask, welcome · **To what, where:** gentle speech, we

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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 (charm, we), 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:pg66084:4:40
# text = What charm lieth in gentle speech shall we learn without asking, since here we have welcomed the fine father of courtesy.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	obj	_	_
2	charm	charm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	lieth	lie	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	since	since	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	obl	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	welcomed	welcome	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	courtesy	courtesy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | present | charm |  |  | gentle speech |  | What *obj* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location what=Theme |
| 2 | **learn** | shall | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **welcome** | present · perfect · passive |  | we |  |  |  | the fine father of courtesy *obj* | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme father=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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