---
title: There was meat, there was mirth, there was much joy, so that to tell… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: There was meat, there was mirth, there was much joy, so that to tell thereof would take me too long, though peradventure I might strive to declare it. Who acts: meat, mirth, I. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Wes
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 4, sentence 69

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There was meat, there was mirth, there was much joy, so that to tell thereof would take me too long, though peradventure I might strive to declare it.

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**Who acts:** meat, mirth, I · **What happens:** be, tell, take, strive, declare · **To what, where:** me, joy · **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 (meat, mirth, I), 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:pg66084:4:69
# text = There was meat, there was mirth, there was much joy, so that to tell thereof would take me too long, though peradventure I might strive to declare it.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
7	mirth	mirth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	17	mark	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	fixed	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
18	thereof	thereof	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	too	too	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	peradventure	peradventure	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	strive	strive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	declare	declare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | meat |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | mirth |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | mirth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take** | would |  |  | me |  |  | long, thereof *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument i=Destination |
| 5 | **strive** | might | I |  |  |  |  | peradventure *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **declare** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | joy |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Attribute |

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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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