---
title: Quoth Sir Lancelot: "I were liefer dead than that a knight should fo… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Quoth Sir Lancelot: "I were liefer dead than that a knight should force me to do that to which I had no mind--so were the shame equal. Who acts: Quoth Lancelot, knight, Sir, shame. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Ope
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 2, sentence 79

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Quoth Sir Lancelot: "I were liefer dead than that a knight should force me to do that to which I had no mind--so were the shame equal.

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**Who acts:** Quoth Lancelot, knight, Sir, shame · **What happens:** be, force, do, have · **To what, where:** Sir, that, mind

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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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Quoth Lancelot, knight, Sir, shame), 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:pg8447:2:80
# text = Quoth Sir Lancelot: "I were liefer dead than that a knight should force me to do that to which I had no mind--so were the shame equal.
1	Quoth	Quoth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
2	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:desc	_	_
3	Lancelot	Lancelot	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	liefer	lief	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
9	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
10	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	force	force	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	obl	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	shame	shame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	equal	equal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | Quoth Lancelot  Sir |  |  |  |  | I *nsubj*; lief *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **force** *in a quote* | should | a knight | Sir |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Sir *not said here* | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 4 | **have** *in a quote* | past | Sir | no mind |  |  |  | which *obl* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mind=Patient |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | past | the shame |  |  |  |  | equal *property* | 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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