---
title: Then the host asked him courteously what stern behest had driven him… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the host asked him courteously what stern behest had driven him at the holy season from the king’s court, to fare all alone, ere yet the feast was ended? Who acts: host. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Westo
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 4, sentence 79

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Then the host asked him courteously what stern behest had driven him at the holy season from the king’s court, to fare all alone, ere yet the feast was ended?

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**Who acts:** host · **What happens:** ask, drive, fare, end · **To what, where:** Gawain, stern behest, feast · **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 (host), 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:pg66084:4:79
# text = Then the host asked him courteously what stern behest had driven him at the holy season from the king’s court, to fare all alone, ere yet the feast was ended?
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	host	host	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	courteously	courteously	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
8	stern	stern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	behest	behest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	holy	holy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	fare	fare	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
25	all	all	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	ere	ere	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
29	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	feast	feast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	ended	end	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the host |  | Gawain |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **drive** | past · perfect · passive |  | stern behest |  |  | season | what *obj*; Gawain *obj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **fare** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **end** | past · passive |  | the feast |  |  | yet | ere *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |

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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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