---
title: An evil head it had, four feet large, no less, sharply ground, and b… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: An evil head it had, four feet large, no less, sharply ground, and bound to the handle by the lace that gleamed brightly. Who acts: blow, lace. 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 de
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 8, sentence 22

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An evil head it had, four feet large, no less, sharply ground, and bound to the handle by the lace that gleamed brightly.

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**Who acts:** blow, lace · **What happens:** have, bind, gleam · **To what, where:** evil head

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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 (blow, lace), 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:pg66084:8:22
# text = An evil head it had, four feet large, no less, sharply ground, and bound to the handle by the lace that gleamed brightly.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
9	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	no	no	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	sharply	sharply	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	bound	bind	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	handle	handle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	lace	lace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	gleamed	gleam	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	brightly	brightly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | blow | a evil head *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **bind** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | to the handle; by the lace | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent to handle=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **gleam** | past | the lace |  |  |  |  | brightly *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «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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