---
title: If I may I shall tell ye that which ye should courteously have asked… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: If I may I shall tell ye that which ye should courteously have asked of this knight, who never yet was so hardly bestead by any man that he fell from his steed." Who acts: I, knight, man. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. West
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 3, sentence 15

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If I may I shall tell ye that which ye should courteously have asked of this knight, who never yet was so hardly bestead by any man that he fell from his steed."

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**Who acts:** I, knight, man · **What happens:** tell, ask, be, fall · **To what, where:** ye, steed · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, knight, man), 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:pg8447:3:15
# text = If I may I shall tell ye that which ye should courteously have asked of this knight, who never yet was so hardly bestead by any man that he fell from his steed."
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	6	iobj	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	obj	_	_
10	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	courteously	courteously	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	advcl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	bestead	bestead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl:relcl	_	_
26	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
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	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | shall | I |  | ye |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent ye=Recipient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | should · perfect · passive |  | ye |  |  |  | of this knight; which *obj*; courteously *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | this knight |  |  |  |  | by any man; bestead, hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall** | past | man |  |  | man's steed |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from steed=Initial\_Location |

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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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