---
title: She taught me this marvel to betray your wits, to vex Guinevere and… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: She taught me this marvel to betray your wits, to vex Guinevere and fright her to death by the man who spake with his head in his hand at the high table. Who acts: le, man. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston,
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 8, sentence 107

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She taught me this marvel to betray your wits, to vex Guinevere and fright her to death by the man who spake with his head in his hand at the high table.

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**Who acts:** le, man · **What happens:** teach, betray, vex, speak · **To what, where:** marvel, me, wits, Guinevere, hand · **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 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (le, man), 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:pg66084:8:107
# text = She taught me this marvel to betray your wits, to vex Guinevere and fright her to death by the man who spake with his head in his hand at the high table.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	taught	teach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	marvel	marvel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	betray	betray	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
8	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	wits	wit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	vex	vex	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
13	Guinevere	Guinevere	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	spake	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **teach** *speech: other* | past | le | this marvel | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient marvel=Topic |
| 2 | **betray** | to-infinitive | le *not said here* | your wits |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **vex** | to-infinitive | le *not said here* | Guinevere  le and fright |  |  |  | to death; by the man | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus guinevere=Experiencer |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | the man |  |  | man's hand at the high table |  | with man's head | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with head=Co-Agent |

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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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