---
title: He had burnt and laid waste so much men scarce knew the tale thereof… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: He had burnt and laid waste so much men scarce knew the tale thereof, and the queen had he beset in a castle to which he himself laid siege. Who acts: Sir, much men, queen. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, pa
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 11, sentence 33

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He had burnt and laid waste so much men scarce knew the tale thereof, and the queen had he beset in a castle to which he himself laid siege.

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**Who acts:** Sir, much men, queen · **What happens:** burnt, lay, know, beset, siege · **To what, where:** tale, castle

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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 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sir, much men, queen), 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:pg8447:11:33
# text = He had burnt and laid waste so much men scarce knew the tale thereof, and the queen had he beset in a castle to which he himself laid siege.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	burnt	burnt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
6	waste	waste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	scarce	scarce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
11	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	thereof	thereof	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	beset	beset	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	obl	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	27	nmod:unmarked	_	_
29	laid	laid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	siege	siege	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **burnt** | past · perfect | Sir |  |  |  |  | laid waste *conj* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **know** | past | much men | the tale |  |  |  | thereof *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer tale=Stimulus |
| 4 | **beset** | past | the queen |  |  | a castle |  | Sir *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 5 | **siege** |  | Sir |  |  |  |  | to a castle | tree rules |

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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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