--- title: Had it been midnight, and dark as night is wont to be, yet had ye se… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics description: Had it been midnight, and dark as night is wont to be, yet had ye seen the grass and the flowers by the light of the sparks that flew so thick from helmet and sword and fell upon the earth. Who acts: night, ye, sparks. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Me --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/90/) [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/) / 90 # Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 2, sentence 90 Had it been midnight, and dark as night is wont to be, yet had ye seen the grass and the flowers by the light of the sparks that flew so thick from helmet and sword and fell upon the earth. **Who acts:** night, ye, sparks · **What happens:** have, be, see, fly, fall, light · **To what, where:** sword, midnight, grass, earth, sparks 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 (night, ye, sparks), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg8447:2:91 # text = Had it been midnight, and dark as night is wont to be, yet had ye seen the grass and the flowers by the light of the sparks that flew so thick from helmet and sword and fell upon the earth. 1 Had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 2 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 1 obj _ _ 3 been be AUX VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 4 cop _ _ 4 midnight midnight NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 7 punct _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 7 dark dark ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 1 conj _ _ 8 as as SCONJ IN _ 11 mark _ _ 9 night night NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 nsubj _ _ 10 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 11 cop _ _ 11 wont wont ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 advcl _ _ 12 to to PART TO _ 13 mark _ _ 13 be be VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 11 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 15 yet yet CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 16 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 18 aux _ _ 17 ye ye PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch 18 nsubj _ _ 18 seen see VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 1 conj _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 grass grass NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ _ 21 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 flowers flower NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 conj _ _ 24 by by ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 light light NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ _ 27 of of ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 sparks spark NOUN NNS Number=Plur 26 nmod _ _ 30 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 31 nsubj _ _ 31 flew fly VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 29 acl:relcl _ _ 32 so so ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 33 thick thick ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 xcomp _ _ 34 from from ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 35 helmet helmet NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ _ 36 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 37 sword sword NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 conj _ _ 38 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 39 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 31 conj _ _ 40 upon upon ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 42 earth earth NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 1 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | past | | sword | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | | 2 | **is a** | participle | | midnight | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **is** | present | night | | | | | wont *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **be** | to-infinitive | night *not said here* | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **see** | past · perfect | ye | the grass and the flowers | | | | by the light of the sparks | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer grass=Stimulus | | 6 | **fly** | past | the sparks | | | | | thick *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **fall** | past | the sparks *not said here* | | | the earth | | | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon earth=Location | | 8 | **light** | | | the sparks | | | | | nom light «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/89/) - next →: [sentence 91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/91/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8447/2/)