---
title: “God forbid,” quoth he to himself, “that it should so befall.” — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: “God forbid,” quoth he to himself, “that it should so befall.” Who acts: God, gulf. 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 pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 6, sentence 74

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“God forbid,” quoth he to himself, “that it should so befall.”

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**Who acts:** God, gulf · **What happens:** forbid, quoth, befall · **To what, where:** God

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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 (God, gulf), 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:pg66084:6:74
# text = “God forbid,” quoth he to himself, “that it should so befall.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	forbid	forbid	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	quoth	quoth	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	befall	befall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **forbid** *in a quote* | infinitive | God |  |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Causer |
| 2 | **quoth** | present | God *not said here* | God | God |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **befall** *in a quote* | should | gulf |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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