---
title: My head fell to my feet, and yet I fled not, but thou didst wax fain… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: My head fell to my feet, and yet I fled not, but thou didst wax faint of heart ere any harm befell. Who acts: head, I, thou, harm. 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 dependency tree
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 8, sentence 43

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My head fell to my feet, and yet I fled not, but thou didst wax faint of heart ere any harm befell.

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**Who acts:** head, I, thou, harm, heart · **What happens:** fall, not flee, do, befall, faint · **To what, where:** wax faint

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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 (head, I, thou, harm), 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:pg66084:8:43
# text = My head fell to my feet, and yet I fled not, but thou didst wax faint of heart ere any harm befell.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
16	didst	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	wax	wax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	faint	faint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	ere	ere	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	befell	befall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | My head |  |  |  |  | to my feet | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to foot=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **flee** | past | I |  |  |  | yet |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | past | thou | wax faint of heart |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent faint=Eventuality |
| 4 | **befall** | past | any harm |  |  |  |  | ere *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **faint** |  | heart |  |  |  |  |  | nom faint «event intransitive»: of=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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