---
title: It had a hole at the end and at either side, and was overgrown with… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: It had a hole at the end and at either side, and was overgrown with clumps of grass, and it was hollow within as an old cave or the crevice of a crag; he knew not what it might be. Who acts: mound, knight. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in M
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/8/4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Mid…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/) / [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/8/) / 4

# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 8, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It had a hole at the end and at either side, and was overgrown with clumps of grass, and it was hollow within as an old cave or the crevice of a crag; he knew not what it might be.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mound, knight · **What happens:** have, overgrow, be, not know · **To what, where:** hole, end · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (mound, knight), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66084:8:4
# text = It had a hole at the end and at either side, and was overgrown with clumps of grass, and it was hollow within as an old cave or the crevice of a crag; he knew not what it might be.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	det	_	_
11	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	overgrown	overgrow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	clumps	clump	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	hollow	hollow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	_
25	within	within	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	crevice	crevice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	crag	crag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
40	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	38	ccomp	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
42	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
43	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | mound | a hole |  |  | at the end and either side |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hole=Patient |
| 2 | **overgrow** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  | with clumps of grass | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | mound |  |  |  |  | within a old cave or the crevice of a crag; hollow *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **know** | past | knight |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/8/3/)
- next →: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/8/5/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/8/)