---
title: But ere he departed he sware to her that he would return when he had… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: But ere he departed he sware to her that he would return when he had achieved his quest; but he kept not his oath. Who acts: Sir. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 3, sentence 33

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But ere he departed he sware to her that he would return when he had achieved his quest; but he kept not his oath.

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**Who acts:** Sir · **What happens:** depart, sware, return, achieve, not keep, quest · **To what, where:** Nor, quest, oath

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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 (Sir), 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:pg8447:3:33
# text = But ere he departed he sware to her that he would return when he had achieved his quest; but he kept not his oath.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	ere	ere	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	departed	depart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	sware	sware	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	achieved	achieve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	quest	quest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	oath	oath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **depart** | past | Sir |  | Nor |  |  | ere *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to she=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **sware** |  | Sir |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **return** | would | Sir |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **achieve** | past · perfect | Sir | Sir's quest |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent quest=Eventuality |
| 5 | **not** **keep** | past | Sir | Sir's oath |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oath=Theme |
| 6 | **quest** |  | Sir |  |  |  |  |  | nom quest «cognition intransitive»: poss=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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