---
title: “Wherefore?” quoth the knight quickly, fearing lest he had lacked in… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: “Wherefore?” quoth the knight quickly, fearing lest he had lacked in some courtesy. Who acts: knight. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/65/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Mid…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/) / [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/) / 65

# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 5, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Wherefore?” quoth the knight quickly, fearing lest he had lacked in some courtesy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** knight · **What happens:** quoth, fear, lack · **To what, where:** knight, courtesy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knight), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66084:5:65
# text = “Wherefore?” quoth the knight quickly, fearing lest he had lacked in some courtesy.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	quoth	quoth	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	fearing	fear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	advcl	_	_
11	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	lacked	lack	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	courtesy	courtesy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **quoth** | present |  | the knight |  |  |  | quickly, wherefore *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fear** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **lack** | past · perfect | knight |  |  | some courtesy |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/64/)
- next →: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/66/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/)