--- title: With burning torches, and many a serving man, was each led to his co… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics description: With burning torches, and many a serving man, was each led to his couch; yet ere they gat them to bed the old lord oft repeated their covenant, for he knew well how to make sport. Who acts: many, torches, old lord, lord. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Roma --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/9/) [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/) / 9 # Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 5, sentence 9 With burning torches, and many a serving man, was each led to his couch; yet ere they gat them to bed the old lord oft repeated their covenant, for he knew well how to make sport. **Who acts:** many, torches, old lord, lord, talk · **What happens:** serve, man, be, gat, repeat, know · **To what, where:** burning torches, led, talk, covenant, sport · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (many, torches, old lord, lord), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg66084:5:9 # text = With burning torches, and many a serving man, was each led to his couch; yet ere they gat them to bed the old lord oft repeated their covenant, for he knew well how to make sport. 1 With with ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 2 burning burning NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 compound _ _ 3 torches torch NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 5 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 6 many many ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 9 nsubj _ _ 7 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 8 serving serve VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 9 amod _ _ 9 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 acl _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 11 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 13 cop _ _ 12 each each DET DT PronType=Tot 13 det _ _ 13 led led NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 14 to to ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 15 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 16 couch couch NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 17 ; ; PUNCT : _ 21 punct _ _ 18 yet yet ADV RB _ 19 advmod _ _ 19 ere ere ADV RB _ 21 advmod _ _ 20 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 21 gat gat VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 13 parataxis _ _ 22 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 obj _ _ 23 to to ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 bed bed NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obl _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 26 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 27 amod _ _ 27 lord lord NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ _ 28 oft oft ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 27 amod _ _ 29 repeated repeat VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 27 acl _ _ 30 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 31 nmod:poss _ _ 31 covenant covenant NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 33 for for SCONJ IN _ 35 mark _ _ 34 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 35 knew know VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 parataxis _ _ 36 well well ADV RB Degree=Pos 35 advmod _ _ 37 how how ADV WRB PronType=Int 39 advmod _ _ 38 to to PART TO _ 39 mark _ _ 39 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 35 ccomp _ _ 40 sport sport NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 13 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **serve** | gerund | | | | | | | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **man** | | many | burning torches *not said here* | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **is a** | past | | each led | | | | with burning torches; to man's couch | tree rules | | 4 | **gat** | present | torches *= torch* | talk | | | yet | to bed; the old lord *obj*; ere *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **repeat** | participle | the old lord *not said here* | talk's covenant | | | | | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent covenant=Eventuality | | 6 | **know** | past | lord | | | | | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 7 | **make** | to-infinitive | | sport | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sport=Product | | 8 | **covenant** | | talk | | | | | | nom covenant «communication intransitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/8/) - next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/10/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/)