---
title: But he saw there the hoof-prints of horses, which lay before him and… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: But he saw there the hoof-prints of horses, which lay before him and were but newly made; by this he deemed that his father had passed that way but a short while before. Who acts: Morien, hoof prints, father. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dut
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 7, sentence 17

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But he saw there the hoof-prints of horses, which lay before him and were but newly made; by this he deemed that his father had passed that way but a short while before.

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**Who acts:** Morien, hoof prints, father · **What happens:** see, lie, make, deem, pass, print · **To what, where:** way, horses

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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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Morien, hoof prints, father), 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:pg8447:7:17
# text = But he saw there the hoof-prints of horses, which lay before him and were but newly made; by this he deemed that his father had passed that way but a short while before.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	hoof	hoof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	prints	print	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	before	before	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	newly	newly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	obl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	deemed	deem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	ccomp	_	_
31	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
32	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl:unmarked	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	_
37	before	before	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Morien |  |  | there |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **lie** | past | the hoof prints of horses |  |  |  | before Morien | which *nsubj* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |
| 3 | **make** | past · passive | the hoof prints of horses *not said here* |  |  |  |  | newly *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP» |
| 4 | **deem** | past | Morien |  |  |  |  | by this | vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **pass** | past · perfect | Morien's father | that way |  |  |  | before *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **print** |  |  | horses |  |  |  |  | nom print «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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