---
title: Of a truth it seemed to me, by their features and by their gestures,… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Of a truth it seemed to me, by their features and by their gestures, that they should be brothers. Who acts: it, letters. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 4, sentence 7

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Of a truth it seemed to me, by their features and by their gestures, that they should be brothers.

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**Who acts:** it, letters · **What happens:** seem, be, feature, gesture · **To what, where:** me, brothers

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, letters), 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:pg8447:4:7
# text = Of a truth it seemed to me, by their features and by their gestures, that they should be brothers.
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	features	feature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	gestures	gesture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | it |  | me |  |  | of a truth; by letters's features and letters's gestures | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | should | letters *= letter* | brothers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **feature** |  | letters *= letter* |  |  |  |  |  | nom feature «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **gesture** |  | letters *= letter* |  |  |  |  |  | nom gesture «act 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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