---
title: “Wherever a fair countenance is shown him, it behoves a courteous kn… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: “Wherever a fair countenance is shown him, it behoves a courteous knight quickly to claim a kiss.” Who acts: countenance. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 6, sentence 5

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“Wherever a fair countenance is shown him, it behoves a courteous knight quickly to claim a kiss.”

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**Who acts:** countenance · **What happens:** show, behove, claim · **To what, where:** fair countenance, courteous knight, kiss

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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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg66084:6:5
# text = “Wherever a fair countenance is shown him, it behoves a courteous knight quickly to claim a kiss.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Wherever	wherever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	shown	show	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	behoves	behove	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	courteous	courteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	claim	claim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	kiss	kiss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | a fair countenance |  |  |  | him *= he* *obj*; wherever *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient he=Topic |
| 2 | **behove** *in a quote* | present | countenance | a courteous knight |  |  |  | quickly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **claim** *speech: other* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | countenance *not said here* | a kiss |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent kiss=Topic |

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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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