---
title: But Gawain swerved aside as the axe came gliding down to slay him as… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: But Gawain swerved aside as the axe came gliding down to slay him as he stood, and shrank a little with the shoulders, for the sharp iron. Who acts: Gawain, axe. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, p
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 8, sentence 37

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But Gawain swerved aside as the axe came gliding down to slay him as he stood, and shrank a little with the shoulders, for the sharp iron.

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**Who acts:** Gawain, axe · **What happens:** swerve, come, glide down, slay, stand, shrink · **To what, where:** Gawain, little

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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 (Gawain, axe), 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:pg66084:8:37
# text = But Gawain swerved aside as the axe came gliding down to slay him as he stood, and shrank a little with the shoulders, for the sharp iron.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Gawain	Gawain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	swerved	swerve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	aside	aside	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
9	gliding	glide	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	_
10	down	down	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	shrank	shrink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swerve** | past | Gawain |  |  |  |  | aside *property* | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | the axe |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **glide down** | gerund | the axe *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **slay** | to-infinitive | the axe *not said here* | Gawain |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 5 | **stand** | past | Gawain |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **shrink** | past | Gawain *not said here* | a little |  |  |  | with the shoulders; the sharp iron *conj* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with shoulder=Instrument |

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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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