---
title: They thought to remain upon the battlements, and throw from the cast… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: They thought to remain upon the battlements, and throw from the castle stones so great and so heavy that the king should be driven from the walls out on to the open field where he had pitched his tents. Who acts: knights, King. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose fr
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 11, sentence 78

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They thought to remain upon the battlements, and throw from the castle stones so great and so heavy that the king should be driven from the walls out on to the open field where he had pitched his tents.

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**Who acts:** knights, King · **What happens:** think, remain, throw, drive, pitch · **To what, where:** battlements, castle stones, king, walls, tents · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (knights, King), 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:pg8447:11:78
# text = They thought to remain upon the battlements, and throw from the castle stones so great and so heavy that the king should be driven from the walls out on to the open field where he had pitched his tents.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
5	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	battlements	battlement	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	advcl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	ccomp	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
35	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	38	advmod	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
37	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	pitched	pitch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	acl:relcl	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	tents	tent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | knights *= knight* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **remain** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the battlements |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon battlement=Location |
| 3 | **throw** | infinitive |  |  |  | the castle stones |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent from stone=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **drive** | should · passive |  | the king |  | the walls on the open field |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme from wall=Trajectory |
| 5 | **pitch** | past · perfect | King | King's tents |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tent=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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