---
title: Twas as if one ground a scythe on a grindstone, it whirred and whett… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: Twas as if one ground a scythe on a grindstone, it whirred and whetted like water on a mill-wheel and rushed and rang, terrible to hear. 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, with its dependenc
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 8, sentence 13

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Twas as if one ground a scythe on a grindstone, it whirred and whetted like water on a mill-wheel and rushed and rang, terrible to hear.

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**What happens:** whir, whet, rush, ring, hear · **To what, where:** Twas, mill wheel

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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: 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:pg66084:8:13
# text = Twas as if one ground a scythe on a grindstone, it whirred and whetted like water on a mill-wheel and rushed and rang, terrible to hear.
1	Twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
5	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	scythe	scythe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	grindstone	grindstone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	whirred	whir	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	whetted	whet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
16	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	wheel	wheel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	rushed	rush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	rang	ring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whir** | participle · passive |  | Twas as one's scythe on a grindstone |  |  |  | grindstone *nsubj:pass* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **whet** | participle |  |  |  | a mill wheel |  | like water | tree rules |
| 3 | **rush** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **ring** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **hear** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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