---
title: He called aloud, and soon there came a porter of kindly countenance,… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: He called aloud, and soon there came a porter of kindly countenance, who stood on the wall and greeted this knight and asked his errand. Who acts: knight, countenance. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Open
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 4, sentence 6

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He called aloud, and soon there came a porter of kindly countenance, who stood on the wall and greeted this knight and asked his errand.

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**Who acts:** knight, countenance · **What happens:** call, come, stand, greet, ask · **To what, where:** porter, wall, knight, errand · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knight, countenance), 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:pg66084:4:6
# text = He called aloud, and soon there came a porter of kindly countenance, who stood on the wall and greeted this knight and asked his errand.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	greeted	greet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
22	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** *speech: assert* | past | knight |  |  |  |  | aloud *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | past |  | a porter of countenance |  | there |  | soon *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location porter=Theme |
| 3 | **stand** | past | countenance |  |  | the wall |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on wall=Location |
| 4 | **greet** *speech: greet* | past | countenance *not said here* |  | this knight |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knight=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  | knight's errand |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent errand=Recipient |

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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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