---
title: Sir Gawain stood empty-handed, small chance had he of escape, and th… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: Sir Gawain stood empty-handed, small chance had he of escape, and they who beset him were chosen men, over-strong and over-fierce, as was there well proven. Who acts: Gawain, small chance, man. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 6, sentence 98

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Sir Gawain stood empty-handed, small chance had he of escape, and they who beset him were chosen men, over-strong and over-fierce, as was there well proven.

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**Who acts:** Gawain, small chance, man · **What happens:** stand, hand, have, beset, choose, be · **To what, where:** Gawain

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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, small chance, 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:pg8447:6:98
# text = Sir Gawain stood empty-handed, small chance had he of escape, and they who beset him were chosen men, over-strong and over-fierce, as was there well proven.
1	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod:desc	_	_
2	Gawain	Gawain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	escape	escape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	beset	beset	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	amod	_	_
22	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	over-strong	over-strong	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	over-fierce	over-fierce	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
31	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
32	proven	prove	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | Gawain  Sir |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **hand** | participle | Gawain  Sir *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **have** | past | small chance | Gawain |  |  |  | of escape | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 4 | **beset** | present | man | Gawain |  |  |  | who *nsubj*; chosen men and over-strong and over-fierce *obj* | tree rules |
| 5 | **choose** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP» |
| 6 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **prove** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=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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