---
title: Thus was Sir Gawain a captive, and knew not what he might do. ' — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus was Sir Gawain a captive, and knew not what he might do. ' Who acts: Gawain, Sir. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 6, sentence 40

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Thus was Sir Gawain a captive, and knew not what he might do. '

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**Who acts:** Gawain, Sir · **What happens:** be, not know, do · **To what, where:** Gawain · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Gawain, 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:pg8447:6:40
# text = Thus was Sir Gawain a captive, and knew not what he might do. '
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:desc	_	_
4	Gawain	Gawain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	captive	captive	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | Gawain |  |  |  | Sir *nmod:desc*; a captive *appos*; thus *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past | Gawain *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do** | might | Sir |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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