---
title: The author distinctly tells us more than once that the tale, as he t… — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-Englis… · tree and pragmatics
description: The author distinctly tells us more than once that the tale, as he tells it, was written _in a book_. Who acts: author. A sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 9, sentence 20

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The author distinctly tells us more than once that the tale, as he tells it, was written \_in a book\_.

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**Who acts:** author · **What happens:** tell, write · **To what, where:** more, us, tale, book · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (author), 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:pg66084:9:20
# text = The author distinctly tells us more than once that the tale, as he tells it, was written _in a book_.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	author	author	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	distinctly	distinctly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	obj	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	fixed	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
20	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | the author | more than the tale | us |  |  | distinctly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient more=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | author |  | tale |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent it=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **write** | past · passive |  |  |  | a book |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: in book=Destination |

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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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