---
title: He looked behind and afore, and saw nowhere where food was in prepar… — Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English… · tree and pragmatics
description: He looked behind and afore, and saw nowhere where food was in preparing, nor saw he man nor woman, nor creature that had life, upon the seashore. Who acts: head, food, creature. A sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Openin
---

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# Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 7, sentence 36

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He looked behind and afore, and saw nowhere where food was in preparing, nor saw he man nor woman, nor creature that had life, upon the seashore.

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**Who acts:** head, food, creature · **What happens:** look, see, prepare, man, have · **To what, where:** creature, life

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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 (head, food, creature), 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:pg8447:7:36
# text = He looked behind and afore, and saw nowhere where food was in preparing, nor saw he man nor woman, nor creature that had life, upon the seashore.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	afore	afore	ADV	RB	_	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	nowhere	nowhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
10	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	14	advmod	_	_
11	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	preparing	prepare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	17	cc	_	_
17	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	21	cc	_	_
21	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	24	cc	_	_
24	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	seashore	seashore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | head |  |  |  |  | behind *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | head *not said here* |  |  |  |  | nowhere *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **prepare** | past · progressive | food |  |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | past |  | creature |  |  |  | the seashore *conj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **man** |  | head |  |  |  |  | woman *conj* | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | past | creature | life |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=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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