---
title: He tore his hair, and demeaned himself as one sorely vexed, and spak… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: He tore his hair, and demeaned himself as one sorely vexed, and spake: "Though I be lord of riches yet may I say that I am friendless! Who acts: knight, I. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 2, with its de
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/30/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered in…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/) / 30

# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 2, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He tore his hair, and demeaned himself as one sorely vexed, and spake: "Though I be lord of riches yet may I say that I am friendless!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** knight, I · **What happens:** tore, demean, vex, be, say · **To what, where:** hair, knight, one, lord · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (knight, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8447:2:30
# text = He tore his hair, and demeaned himself as one sorely vexed, and spake: "Though I be lord of riches yet may I say that I am friendless!
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	demeaned	demean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	sorely	sorely	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	vexed	vex	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	spake	speak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	riches	rich	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
24	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
25	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
31	friendless	friendless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tore** | past | knight | knight's hair |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **demean** | past | knight *not said here* | knight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **vex** | participle · passive |  | one |  |  | yet | spake *obj*; sorely *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer speak=Result |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive | I | lord |  |  |  | of riches | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: express* *in a quote* | may | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  | friendless *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/29/)
- next →: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/31/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/)