---
title: And that the steps brake beneath ye, 'twas for your sins; ye had wel… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: And that the steps brake beneath ye, 'twas for your sins; ye had well-nigh climbed them had not sin laid hold on ye. Who acts: steps, ye. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 10, sentence 65

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And that the steps brake beneath ye, 'twas for your sins; ye had well-nigh climbed them had not sin laid hold on ye.

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**Who acts:** steps, ye · **What happens:** break, have, climb, not sin, lay, hold on · **To what, where:** twas, ye, sins

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This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steps, ye), 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:pg8447:10:65
# text = And that the steps brake beneath ye, 'twas for your sins; ye had well-nigh climbed them had not sin laid hold on ye.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	brake	break	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
6	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	sins	sin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
15	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	nigh	nigh	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	sin	sin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	nsubj	_	_
26	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | present | the steps | twas for your sins |  | ye |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beneath ye=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | ye |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **climb** | past | ye *not said here* | sins *= sin* |  |  |  | nigh, well *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location they=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | ye *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **sin** | infinitive | ye *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn rebel-71.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **hold on** | infinitive |  | ye |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ye=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:** «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 8447 (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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