---
title: Had they not heard him call upon God no man had dared face him, deem… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Had they not heard him call upon God no man had dared face him, deeming that he was the devil or one of his fellows out of hell, for that his steed was so great, and he was taller even than Sir Lancelot, and black withal, as I said afore. Who acts: devil, Sir, man, steed. A sentence of «Morien: A Me
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 2, sentence 87

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Had they not heard him call upon God no man had dared face him, deeming that he was the devil or one of his fellows out of hell, for that his steed was so great, and he was taller even than Sir Lancelot, and black withal, as I said afore.

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**Who acts:** devil, Sir, man, steed, I · **What happens:** not hear, call, dare, deem, be, say · **To what, where:** Sir, face, devil · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (devil, Sir, man, steed), 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:pg8447:2:88
# text = Had they not heard him call upon God no man had dared face him, deeming that he was the devil or one of his fellows out of hell, for that his steed was so great, and he was taller even than Sir Lancelot, and black withal, as I said afore.
1	Had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	dared	dare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
13	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	xcomp	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	deeming	deem	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	conj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	hell	hell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	fixed	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	steed	steed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	so	so	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
42	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	parataxis	_	_
43	even	even	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
44	than	than	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	nmod:desc	_	_
46	Lancelot	Lancelot	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
49	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	withal	withal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
53	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	54	nsubj	_	_
54	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	50	conj	_	_
55	afore	afore	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **hear** | past | devil | Sir |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** *speech: assert* | infinitive | Sir *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon God | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **dare** | past · perfect | no man | face  Sir |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **deem** | gerund | Sir *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past | Sir | the devil |  |  |  | one of Sir's fellows out hell *conj* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | Sir's steed |  |  |  |  | great *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | past | Sir |  |  |  |  | than Lancelot  Sir; tall *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  | afore *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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